Tradeable Emission Permits

I keep thinking that I’m about to unveil the final layer of the onion. But… the onion keeps proving me wrong. On this occasion, it relates to the history of carbon trading. How did it actually come to pass, and who did the heavy lifting?

There are two ways to attack the problem. The first is to start from the beginning and move forwards in time. The alternate is doing the reverse. But both require a set timeline which is reasonably easy to establish, because while the William D Nordhaud/IIASA study from 1975 on the pricing of carbon¹, titled ‘CAN WE CONTROL CARBON DIOXIDE?‘ marks the beginning, the end is clearly marked by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol².