Just the other day we noticed that companies were lawyering up for climate change. Now they're banking on it. Talk about serious. "The banks are rushing to hire traders for the U.S., betting it will enact caps, combined with emissions permit trading, after Bush leaves office in January 2009. In the European Union, emissions trading tripled in value to $24 billion in 2006 from a year earlier, when the market started, World Bank figures show...The U.S., which produces more greenhouse gases than any other country, promises to be an even bigger market, says Stephen Welham, a trader at Ambrian Capital Plc in London."The EU emissions trading scheme is going to look like a sideshow to the U.S. and other embryonic programs in a few years' time,'' Welham said."

For years now it's been fairly easy to scam and silence climate scientists who just couldn't belive that politicians and carbon intensive businesses sometimes play dirty. Now that bankers are in the cue for huge bonuses pegged to carbon trades, it's a whole different ball game.

Via:: Bloomberg.com
Image credit:: Chicago Board of Trade, XFA.

Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:

• Global Day of Climate Action 2008
• Sustainability’s Success
• Will the Next New Deal be Transit-Based? Three Plans to Rescue the Economy and the Earth with Public Transportation
• Quote of the Day: Andy Revkin Re-Evaluates Climate Change

India To Get Homegrown Electric Motorbike

Moms' Second Hand Smoke Exposure Linked to Psych. Problems in Kids