Sinking with biofuel: A study by the Finnish Environment Institute found that increased logging could eliminate Europe's carbon sink. While the carbon capture capacity of the continent's forests has gone up by 70 per cent since the 1950s, the demand for biofuels could reduce the sink almost down to zero. The current EU biofuel targets can only be met by increased logging.
The new productivity: Maintaining the global economy while stabilizing emissions will require a ten-fold increase in "carbon productivity" or output per unit of carbon released, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute. Specifically, carbon productivity will have to increase from the current US $740 GDP per tonne of greenhouse gas to US $7,300 GDP per ton by 2050. Without this, stabilizing emissions will require a major drop in lifestyle for developed countries.
Carbon market worth trillions: The international carbon market could become the largest futures market, according to the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Over US $64 billion was traded on the carbon market last year, and this figure could easily grow to US $2 trillion by 2020. The commission notes that if the US institutes a carbon trading scheme the futures market could be as large as US $3 trillion.
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