Unless advocates of a cap-and-trade emissions scheme can design a credible and well-funded compensation mechanism to compensate the losers (including coal miners, heavy industrial workers, and their communities) carbon control policy risks becoming mired in the same controversy as trade liberalisation.

Senior US administration officials have indicated that if Congress does not pass comprehensive legislation providing for a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions they will press ahead unilaterally with proposals using the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s existing authority under the Clean Air Acts.

Power generation from renewable sources such as wind turbines, solar cells and biomass plays a small but important part in satisfying total electricity demand around the world, and is growing at an exponential rate thanks to generous public subsidies and government support.