Joel Lindop, associate for carbon markets at New Energy Finance, said he expects the OECD to be covered by carbon-trading schemes by 2015 but that they would probably be different schemes. "We have more than a decade to wait for a consolidated OECD scheme," he said.

More compatible price ranges are needed before the EU and US carbon markets can be linked, Fages said. "One way to buy industry stakeholders in the US into the market is to make cheap offsets or offer a price cap of around $15 per