Carbon prices plunged yesterday in the aftermath of the Copenhagen conference on climate change, dealing a blow to the credibility of the European Union's carbon-trading scheme.

受哥本哈根气候变化大会影响，碳排放价格昨日大幅下挫，沉重打击了欧盟(EU)碳交易计划的可信度。

Prices for carbon permits for December 2010 delivery, the benchmark contract for pricing European permits, dropped nearly 10 per cent in early trading, before recovering to end the day 8.6 per cent lower at €12.41.

2010年12月碳排放许可价格（为欧洲排放许可定价的基准合约）昨日早盘一度下跌近10%，收盘时略有回升，收于每吨12.41欧元，下跌8.6%。

Lower prices give companies less incentive to invest in cutting their greenhouse gas output. Analysts estimate that prices of more than €40 a tonne are required to stimulate investment in new low-carbon technologies.

碳排放价格越低，企业投资削减温室气体排放量的动力就越弱。据分析师们估算，每吨价格高于40欧元，才足以刺激对低碳新技术的投资。

Carbon traders blamed the price fall on the Copenhagen conference, which produced an accord among the world's biggest developed and developing countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, but omitted details on what those limits would be.

碳交易商将价格下跌归咎于哥本哈根大会，世界上最大的一些发达国家和发展中国家在会上达成了限制各自温室气体排放的共识，但省略了此等限制的具体额度。

Governments now have a month to submit formal pledges on how far they will reduce their carbon output.

各国政府现在有一个月的时间来提交正式承诺，说明各自减排的力度。

“This [accord] is a very disappointing outcome,” said Trevor Sikorski, director at Barclays Capital. “I see nothing here that should drive investment in low-carbon technology.” He said that it was “bearish for the market and bearish for the world”.

“这个（共识）是一个非常令人失望的结果，”巴克莱资本(Barclays Capital)主管特雷弗·西科尔斯基(Trevor Sikorski)表示。“我没有看到任何促进低碳技术投资的内容。”他认为这“对于市场和整个世界而言都是悲观的。”

The EU's carbon price was created under the bloc's emissions trading scheme, by which companies in energy-intensive industries are allocated trade-able permits to produce CO2. The number of permits issued is gradually ratcheted down, giving companies an incentive to cut their emissions in order to avoid having to buy extra permits from others.

欧盟的碳排放价格是在其排放交易计划之下创立的。根据该计划，能源密集型企业将分配得到排放二氧化碳的可交易许可。发放的许可数量会逐步减少，从而激励企业减排，以免被迫从其它企业那里购买额外的排放许可。

One reason for yesterday's fall was that the EU did not raise its carbon-cutting targets as part of the Copenhagen accord. Its current target is to slash emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, but this could have been increased to 30 per cent if other countries had agreed a more ambitious deal.

昨日碳排放价格下跌的原因之一是，欧盟并未提高其减排目标并将其作为哥本哈根共识的一部分。其当前的目标是到2020年减排20%，但如果其它国家达成了一项更加雄心勃勃的协议，这个目标本可以有所提高。

译者/管婧