Environmental Leader

Carbon trading across North America may be a reality soon if Mexico and Canada move forward with plans to establish their own markets.

By 2012, Canada will start a market to trade carbon emissions, according to Bloomberg. The program will be announced later this year. Canada also will start a carbon offset program in 2010, reported Bloomberg, citing a story from Point Carbon (registration required).

In Mexico, the government wants to include oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Federal Electric Commission and cement makers in a carbon trading market.

Last year Mexico set a goal to halve its carbon-dioxide emissions from 2000 levels by 2050. The nation wants to add companies to a cap-and-trade system  “as soon as possible,” said Rodolfo Godinez Rosales, director of environmental issues at the country’s foreign ministry, according to Bloomberg.

So far there appears to be little momentum from the United States to merge with Canadian and Mexican carbon trading efforts, Bloomberg reported.

However, Godinez Rosales said the NAFTA nations had discussed doing so, “in a very general way.”

The Obama Administration appears committed to establishing a U.S. cap-and-trade system. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has pledged to work with Congress to hammer out a deal.

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