ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how a sense of the profound has found its way into the lightweight world of financial intermediation, and to account for London's role in implementing this transformation. It begins with a skeletal sketch of carbon trading and how it works, followed by a brief note on London's central position in this trade. The chapter identifies various factors which have contributed to the development of international carbon trading, in London especially. 'Carbon trading' is the buying and selling not of carbon, but of permits to emit carbon dioxide, under licence from state or inter-state institutions. After Thatcher's resignation and the demise of the Conservative government led by her successor, John Major, the convergence of state and capital interests in search of solutions to climate change continued under successive New Labour and Labour governments. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both used New Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPI) to create a carbon-budget and reform energy markets.
