The Blog For Entrepreneurs

This has been happening recently. A friend from the UK moved to Geneva and calls me up for a beer, turns out he is an emissions trader. He introduces me to a one of the top men in the game, the I get a phone call from my business partner in Canada, he asks me if I know any ‘carbon traders’.

Many would write this off as coincidence and take it no further but as entrepreneurs we have to see how we can turn these seemingly random events into an opportunity. So I looked at my contact base and spoke with my contacts in motorsport sponsorship, maybe there is a deal there. What about the guys I know in the oil companies or power generators? Who do I know who knows someone, who may know someone (etc) that we could do a deal with? See where I am going with this?

So what is carbon trading?

This from Wikipedia: “The overall goal of an emissions trading plan is to reduce emissions. The cap is usually lowered over time – aiming towards a national emissions reduction target. In other systems a portion of all traded credits must be retired, causing a net reduction in emissions each time a trade occurs. In many cap and trade systems, organizations which do not pollute may also participate, thus environmental groups can purchase and retire allowances or credits and hence drive up the price of the remainder according to the law of demand. Corporations can also prematurely retire allowances by donating them to a nonprofit entity and then be eligible for a tax deduction.

Because emissions trading uses markets to determine how to deal with the problem of pollution, it is often touted as an example of effective free market environmentalism. However, emissions trading requires a cap to effectively reduce emissions, and the cap is a government regulatory mechanism, so it is somewhat of a misnomer to describe it as “free market” environmentalism.

The entire procedure is premised on government intervention in the form of a cap. After a cap has been set by a government political process, individual companies are free to choose how or if they will reduce their emissions. Failure to reduce emissions is often punishable by a further government regulatory mechanism, a fine that increases costs of production. In theory, firms will choose the least-costly way to comply with the pollution regulation, which will lead to reductions where the least expensive solutions exist, while allowing emissions that are more expensive to reduce.”

So, essentially, the buying and selling of emissions certificates can be traded… creating a market.. and opportunity.

This particular opportunity is hitting me just like it did when I was exposed to the commodities market niche I was involved in and this is something that aspiring entrepreneurs should take as a lesson. This is that opportunities is all around you, you just have to open your mind.

If you sign up for our newsletter you will get our free eBook ‘Becoming an Entrepreneur – Boot Camp’. This eBook will show you the techniques and strategies that I and many other use to train our minds to focus on these emerging opportunities.

The negative people who I avoid but inevitability end up talking to, say “David, there are already huge players in that market, you don’t stand a chance, you are behind the curve”. This is almost word for word what I was told about the commodities business I had.

These kind of people will say the same to you, with what ever opportunity you attract… don’t listen. Do your research, of course, but only you can decide what will work and what won’t.

Download the eBook now and see what opportunities are staring you in the face.

Regards
David
@OneLifeNoFear

Resources: If you want to know more about how you could set up a business in the carbon industry thiseBook may help: Carbon Ventures eBook