A PointCarbon expert Emilie Mazzacurati, manager for carbon market research North America at Point Carbon, predicts the early years of a carbon market may provide sufficient offsets and allowances for US industry, but as 2020 approaches the market will be short. She states that industry will need sectoral markets and forest carbon credits to be able to meet the demand without very high carbon prices.
She predicted that by 2020, carbon prices could rise as high as $50 per metric ton, as US industries must switch fuels and reduce emissions by 1.4 billion metric tons.
I am convinced that forest carbon will be part of the US system, and the post-Kyoto program. The Waxman-Markey draft bill is full of deforestation provisions that would work to greatly reduce destruction and degradation of forests, particularly outside the United States.
We are working with several clients on forest carbon projects and believe this will be growinglong term investment in both avoided deforestation (REDD) and reforestation/afforestation. Look for this sector to grow in the future. Those industries such as utilities with coal-fired power plants, natural gas suppliers, and petroleum refineries will find that forest carbon is an attractive source of future offsets.
