Twenty five years ago, on this day, August 16th, 2000,
“However, 12 months later, the Sydney Futures Exchange announced that it had dropped its proposal to establish a trading centre for carbon credits. The decision was made in the context of the Exchange demutualising and moving to a public company. A spokesman noted that the commercial viability of carbon trading was not likely to be in a time frame proportional to other business initiatives. As well, political uncertainties existed over the implementation of the Kyoto protocol limiting the emission of greenhouse gases.44”
“SFE drops plan to trade ‘fresh air’ carbon credits” in Reuters News Service, 16 August 2000.
From 2002 Stewart Smith Greenhouse Update
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 369ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that one form of putting a price on carbon – a straightforward tax – had been handily defeated, twice, in the early 1990s. Since then, interest had grown in “emissions trading”. The Kyoto Protocol, which Australia had signed (but NOT yet ratified) had scope for this. There had been a real push for carbon trading in Australia (consultants and bankers were going to make money) and it would ‘efficiently’ reduce emissions (yeah, sure).
The specific context was that it had become obvious that there would not be an early ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and the ducks were not all in a row and so… plug pulled.
What I think we can learn from this – emissions trading might have helped a little bit, at the margins, in a perfect universe. But if we lived in a perfect universe, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Also, in politics, sport, you name it, timing is everything.
What happened next – the Chicago Futures Exchange (whatever it was called), met a similar fate, a few years on.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs
Also on this day:
August 16, 2002 – “Oil Lobby Urges Bush to Keep Climate Change Off the Table at Earth Summit”
August 16, 2010 – Polar Bears going through the motions
August 16, 2012 – Tony Windsor calls Tony Abbott an “absolute disgrace” on carbon tax/climate