"Kyoto CO2 trade may end if no climate deal: U.N. study" (ICE; JPM; CAO.L)

And to think that the Intercontinental Exchange just bought Climate Exchange PLC and the JP Morgan/Ecosecurities deal isn't even a year old. As some scribbler said:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

-Brutus

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

From Reuters:

The Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) may end from 2013 unless the world can agree and put into force a new round of carbon emissions targets before then, a U.N. paper has said.

The CDM enabled a $20.6 billion trade in carbon emissions rights between rich and poor countries in 2009, to help developed countries meet their carbon emissions caps under Kyoto from 2008-2012.

The world has so far failed to agree a new round of commitments, in faltering U.N. talks.
Countries which are party to the Kyoto Protocol asked the U.N. climate change secretariat in June to report back on legal options to avoid a political vacuum, or gap, at the end of 2012.
"A gap would frustrate the purpose of the CDM and argue against its continuation," if fulfillment of the purpose of the CDM was considered mandatory to help countries meet their carbon caps, the paper said.

"Under this interpretation, no new CDM project activities could be validated or registered, emission reductions or removals that occurred after the first commitment period could not be verified, and corresponding CERs could not be issued."
The full paper can be found here - here

Meanwhile Reuters Africa is reporting this decidedly non-eco-friendly news:

Camco trims UN carbon offset portfolio, burns cash