From Kyoto to Paris

IETA is proud to present an oral history of the carbon market, from the Kyoto Protocol up to the road to Paris! Hear about the key developments in the global market in the words of those that were there.

The book is available now on Amazon and you can hear it in the speakers’ own words below. Email press@ieta.org with any questions.

  • Chapter 1: Markets and the Kyoto Protocol

    “The Kyoto Protocol was the first international piece of law that tried to articulate an idea of carbon rights and creating a market.”

    Martijn Wilder

    “The biggest challenge at Kyoto was definitely trying to get global agreement on the use of markets.”

    Dirk Forrister

  • Chapter 2: Early
    emissions trading

    “We didn’t know the answers and people were very open about that, we were just exploring and trying to work out how could we do this. “

    Nicola Steen

    “The message was ‘emissions trading works, and here’s what we think ought to be in it.”

    John Scowcroft

  • Chapter 3: The EU ETS

    “We kept thinking it was going to happen, the Protocol was going to be approved and emissions trading was going to be the greatest thing in the world – some of that came true.”

    Andrew Ertel

    “We headed out of 2008, the recession started to take hold, the realisation that there was a surplus of allowances building in the market hit the market, and the price started falling. And it fell and it fell.”

    David Hone

  • Chapter 4: The CDM

    “As entrepreneurs, we’re patient, but as the months and years went by and we have to pay the bills, the patience erodes.”

    Marco Monroy

    “In terms of creating a culture of an entire entrepreneurial class that was out there looking for ways to reduce emissions … that’s a much more important effect of the CDM.”

    Marc Stuart

  • Chapter 5: Carbon funds and climate finance

    “It was like making love in the time of cholera – it was at the one and same time incredibly exciting and dangerous”

    Ken Newcombe

    “It was impossible to reach our Kyoto target without making use of international carbon markets.”

    Teresa Ribera

  • Chapter 6: All change in Durban

    “The Durban Platform was really a sea change in the negotiations.”

    Jeff Swartz

    “Leadership is absolutely critical to get tough decisions on an international level. I think that was missing in Copenhagen in 2009.”

    Teresa Ribera

  • Chapter 7: To Paris – and beyond

    “I don’t think the grand vision of Kyoto and one international, unified force-theory-Einstein-would-be-proud carbon market is going to occur.”

    Jeff Swartz

    “Markets are able to mobilise and engage a lot more people than if you only have a command-and-control measure.”

    Teresa Ribera