ABSTRACT
Carbon based market instruments implemented to date such as emissions trading and the Clean Development Mechanism have failed to drive the market changes and emissions reductions, they were designed to let alone provide the serious price signal which would encourage medium and long term investment in low carbon technologies, innovations and services. According to the Canadian based Global carbon capture and storage (CCS) Institute, eight large-scale CCS projects are storing about 23 million tonnes of CO2 each year globally. Clean and particularly low carbon technologies offer the private sector high market and profit growth opportunities in the medium and long term. Business leaders who recognise both the moral imperative and the high commercial opportunities in pursuing low carbon strategies are becoming increasingly vocal and collaborative in calling on governments to put a clear, transparent and unambiguous price on carbon emissions. Most of the structural shifts in achieving a low carbon economy are both long term and hugely capital-intensive.
