ABSTRACT
The market effectively reflects the financial values of goods and services through pricing mechanisms. Some policy-makers, with the support of forward-thinking companies, are taking action to extend the boundaries of the market and turn part of the environmental commons into tradable commodities. Policies are beginning to reflect the fact that economic strength and environmental stability are mutually dependent rather than mutually exclusive. Environmental issues such as climate change are very complex scientifically. However, they are also complex psychologically. At the 1992 Earth Summit, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed by 154 governments. The main objective of the Convention is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid dangerous human-induced changes in climate. Climate change threatens virtually all ecosystems, but many of the systems are at risk from other pollutants, economic development, and overuse of resources. Biodiversity offers valuable ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation and a future option value such as genetic material.
