European Union carbon-dioxide allowances for delivery in December 2010 declined 8.3 percent to close at 12.45 euros ($17.82) on the European Climate Exchange in London. Today was the first day of trading since the summit concluded Dec. 19....

Today's decline for permits in the EU, which runs the world's largest cap-and-trade system, extends last week's drop of 6.8 percent and left prices at the lowest since March 31. Allowances for delivery in December 2010 have fallen 24 percent this year as the lack of progress on climate talks and recession reduced demand.

Second-Biggest Market

The UN's Certified Emission Reductions credits for delivery next year fell 7.2 percent, the biggest one-day fall since Feb. 20, to close at 10.98 euros in London. The credits, which trade in the world's second-biggest carbon market, are down 20 percent this year....

Projects are now approved on a case-by-case basis and must show they need credits to be feasible. That approval process has produced a backlog, with 66 percent of 5,641 of the proposed projects that the UN received since 2003 waiting as of Dec. 4, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The proposal for industry baselines would have meant more credits, traders said.

"I find it incredibly frustrating" that countries can spend days discussing potential technological solutions to climate change such as synthetic trees while they "punt critical issues like standardized baselines" to a technical working group for a year, Carnahan said.

This CDS circus is worthless if rest of world refuses to assume 100% of the risk.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.