The carbon economy was receiving a lot of political support worldwide, especially from the US, with carbon trading set to become one of the largest markets in the world in future, Macquarie Capital Funds director Andrew Johnstone commented during a cogeneration conference in September.

He added that many people believed it was possible that a carbon central bank would eventually be set up for this purpose.

Johnstone explained that carbon trading could lead to a value of about $500-billion a year.

Meanwhile, he noted that the cost of renewable energy, which is sometimes more expensive than thermal energy, would, at some stage in the future, probably be equal to the cost of thermal energy, as thermal energy prices were increasing.

Further, Johnstone said that while South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, had fallen behind in bringing renewable energy on stream, the country had been doing capacity planning.

He added that South Africa was currently experiencing the biggest boom to date in terms of fixed capital formation and infrastructure construction.

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