ABSTRACT
We are currently at a key juncture in the debate about the role of carbon markets in responses to climate change. On the one hand, the low price of carbon and the declining interest on the part of financial capital, thought to be one of the main beneficiaries of carbon trading (Spash 2010) and repeated scandals which have engulfed the Clean Development mechanism (CDM) and the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), have led to claims of their imminent, inevitable and (for some) welcome demise (Clark 2012). On the other hand, carbon markets, judged by their ongoing proliferation, are flourishing. At the UN level the negotiations are focused on the construction of new market mechanisms. Governments in Annex I countries continue to construct mechanisms and streams of finance to support the growth and inter-linkage of carbon markets (such as the UK government’s Carbon Market Finance Initiative). And at regional and national levels a swathe of new carbon markets and ETSs are coming online in countries such as China, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and Mexico (see Lederer and Engels et al., this volume). It is in the context of this curious anomaly of crisis and expansion that this chapter assesses the role of the CDM Policy Dialogue.
