Noteworthy

The New York Times

Hold That Thought!

MARKET PLACE; Data Leaks Shake Up Carbon Trade

May 16, 2006, Tuesday
By Heather Timmons
Late Edition dash — Final, Section C Business, Page 1, Column 1, 1071 words

It had a promising start, hailed by traders, policy makers and environmentalists as a way to curb global warming with the craft of capitalism. After a banner first year, though, the carbon trading market has suffered a bout of nose dives, missteps and misreadings, leading now to a clamor for change.

The most glaring mishap occurred in April, when some scanty information trickled into the marketplace; last Friday, more official data was mistakenly put onto a government Web site and then quickly removed — but not before it was noticed by market players.

In both cases, the market took a jolt because the information showed that European nations had overestimated the amount of carbon emissions their companies had produced.