According to research firm Point Carbon, the global carbon market has traded US$59 billion worth of contracts in the first half of this year, just shy of the US$62 billion traded in all of 2007.

The firm said that a higher average carbon price, along with volume growth, are responsible for the trading value totals.

About 70% of the volume was traded within the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, up from 61% last year. Trades within the EU ETS generated US$47 billion over the first six months of this year, up 161% on the first half of 2007.

In addition to the EU ETS, trading in the Clean Development Mechanism market is up 20% from the same period last year. Also, it noted that several new markets and market segments have been introduced, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the US, the trading scheme in Alberta, and the upcoming Australian federal Emissions Trading Scheme.

According to Endre Tvinnereim, senior analyst at Point Carbon, “for all of Kyoto’s shortcomings, the carbon market owes pretty much everything to the Kyoto Protocol. The market is no longer immature and precocious, but rather advancing on many fronts, both geographically and in terms of financial sophistication. Indeed, unlike other economic sectors hit by a global downturn this year, the global carbon market is in rude health.”