What is a carbon market and how does it address climate change? 'Business Extra' explains

Carbon can be emitted, offset, removed, stored and increasingly, traded. But how does carbon trading work and what role does it play in the energy transition?

To answer these questions, co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner are joined by William Pazos, co-founder and managing director at AirCarbon, which has teamed up with Abu Dhabi Global Market, the UAE capital's financial free zone, to create a carbon trading exchange and clearing house.

They discuss the long (and sometimes sordid) history of carbon trading and why skeptics are asking the right questions, as well as the fate of a carbon market in a carbon-neutral world.

In this episode

Where is carbon trading taking place? (1m 54s)

What is carbon trading? (2m 50s)

How does it lower emissions? (9m)

The integrity of carbon trading (12m 10s)

How are carbon credits generated? (17m)

AirCarbon (20m 37s)

Can individuals buy credits? (23m 3s)

Net zero (26m)

Is carbon trading a bridge to the future? (30m)

How much is the industry worth? (31m 44s)

Abu Dhabi to launch 'world's first' carbon credit trading exchange

Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify and McKinsey to invest $925m in carbon removal technology

Crypto platform's efforts to stop 'useless' carbon offsets backfires

Global low-carbon hydrogen market 'needs $600bn of investment by 2050'

'The Ice Road'

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Stars: Liam Neeson, Amber Midthunder, Laurence Fishburne

2/5

How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.