Diverging viewpoints emerge from Carbon Expo.(Emissions Trading)

Carbon Expo, a three-day "tradeshow" for those interested in the fledgling market for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction credits, opened 9 June 2004 in Cologne, Germany (www.carbonexpo.com/). Co-sponsors, the World Bank carbon funds and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA, www.ieta.org), held organizational meetings during the trade fair to ensure participation by shareholders and members, which alone provided "critical mass" to the event.

The World Bank developed the first global carbon fund as a public/private partnership, the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF). Since its 1999 launch of PCF, the World Bank has expanded its financing for GHG-reducing projects with the Community Development Carbon Fund (for small-scale projects in least-developed countries), the BioCarbon Fund (for agroforestry and land use projects), and various …