I’m not quite sure what to make of the data in this story yet, because it’s got a lot of numbers and crazy things like that, but here’s what I’ve got so far: the global market for carbon credits doubled in 2008, yet the actual amount of carbon emissions cut from the market fell from 2007 levels. I tended to think that as the former rose, so would the latter, but I’ve been know to be wrong before (haha, just kidding, this is the first time). So, what happened here? Let’s start with what Reuters says about the carbon market doubling in size.

The market grew to $126 billion last year, up from $63 billion in 2007 and nearly 12 times the value in 2005, the World Bank said in a report at the Carbon Expo conference in Barcelona. A total 4.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, were traded last year, up 61 percent from the 3 billion traded in 2007.

So, more companies are spending more money on carbon credits, I’m pretty sure that says. The article goes on to mention some other exchanges and platforms that contributed to the increase in size of the market in 2008. However, all these platforms, apparently, do not directly contribute to reductions in carbon emissions. Only credits traded on the primary market. Which means, what, exactly?

The so-called primary market, or the actual emissions cuts made and sold by United Nations-registered clean energy projects in developing countries, fell by 30 percent to 389 million tons. This segment was worth $6.5 billion last year, down from $7.4 billion in 2007.

So, there’s that. As financial markets got screwed up in 2008, less funding went into clean technology, I guess, which ultimately lowered the amount of trading that occured on the primary market. I think. I’m not 100 percent on that.