Economist: THE worlds largest carbon market has been holed below the water line. On April 16th the European Parliament voted to reject an attempt to bolster Europes flagship environmental programme, the Emissions Trading System (ETS). Carbon prices, already low, plunged. The emerging network of global carbon trading and European climate policy as a whole could sink.
The ETS has long been a mess. It is a cap-and-trade scheme in which permits to emit carbon--about 16 billion tonnes-worth in 2013-20, or roughly...