The volume of carbon credits traded under a scheme in the Kyoto Protocol remained

RELATED ARTICLES India gets 46th spot in global trade logistics performance: WB India sees remittance inflows of $64b in 2011: World Bank

almost unchanged in 2007 as compared to 2006, slowing the rapid growth logged in previous years, according to a recent study by the World Bank.

The findings suggest that the number of greenhouse gas reduction projects funded by industrialised nations and their private sector entities in developing countries has effectively stalled. The volume of carbon credits created by the clean development mechanism totalled 551 million tonnes worth of carbon in 2007, up slightly from 537 million tons in 2006. The figures compared with about 350 million tons in 2005, just below 100 million tonnes in 2004 and 50 million tonnes in 2003.

The slow growth is likely to affect the climate change strategy of the Japanese government, as 1.6 per cent of Japan's 6 per cent carbon emissions reduction obligations under the Kyoto pact, is planned to be covered by carbon credits to be obtained from developing countries via the CDM.

The World Bank had attributed the slow growth to complicated procedures for registering greenhouse gas reduction projects in developing countries and cast its apprehension whether investors will be able to sell credits on the carbon market under a new carbon-capping framework beyond the expiration of the Kyoto pact in 2012.

"In order to continue market growth and investment in clean energy, policy-makers need to send a clear signal to project developers and buying sectors that these mechanisms

will continue to be an important policy tool in the post 2012 policy framework to address climate change," the World Bank quoted Jack Cogen, Chief Executive Officer, Natsource LLC, a New York-based emissions and renewable energy investment bank, as saying.