Kazakhstan and Croatia have become the latest countries to establish carbon trading schemes.
Oil, gas and mineral rich Kazakhstan now requires any organisation emitting more than 20,000 tonnes of CO2 to take part in a cap and trade system.
It launched on January 1 this year with 178 oil and gas, mining and other big industrial emitters taking part.
“Kazakhstan takes an unprecedented effort. In CIS we are the first country which steps forward to establish a national emissions trading system. This is a kind of innovation,” said Nurlan Kapparov, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Environmental Protection ahead of the launch.
The country is largely semi-arid and is suffering from the effects of desertification.
Croatia will become a member of the EU in July this year and took the decision to start trading on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ahead of its membership.
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