9.50 to spend?

€ 9.50. That's what will set you back to buy the right to emission one ton of CO2. The price was set yesterday when the world's first CO2 exchange premiered in Oslo, Norway (article in Norwegian).

To be honest, I don't have a clue weather this is an innovation that will decrease the CO2 emissions. Probably it will. More than 75 per cent of the world's biggest polluters have agreed on the procedure. Can they be wrong?

The only thing I think is weard is that the price will depend of the demand. But as at the very same price (or cost) will serve as an incentive to lower your emissions, doesn't that mean the demand will go down? And as it does, what then will happen with the price? To me it sounds like a great way to keep status quo.