European selling restrictions

For the purposes of the discussion in this section, selling restrictions in those European countries where there is a wider investor appetite will be examined. 

Activities to control the manufacture and use of hazardous chemicals know no boundaries. While North American and European nations are most intense in their regulations and enforcement, there remains wide spread use of harmful substances in countries that are primarily agrarian. While a company may be prevented from manufacturing or selling a banned substance in one country, it may continue to manufacture it in another country which has no restrictions (or lack enforcement). India and China, for example, are primary producers of pesticides and herbicides that have been banned in most western countries. 

Carbon emissions from large stationary sources are more readily controlled than those from smaller, dispersed units. In Europe, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) that aims to limit carbon emissions from these point sources was implemented on 1 January 2005. Individual plants are issued with permits which specify the level of carbon that each may emit annually. Companies with surplus permits may sell these to others who wish to exceed their respective allowances. At first, the scheme did not work well because the initial allocations were generous and the market price of permits was too low to be effective in curtailing emissions. In the next phase of the programme, permits could be restricted and their market value would then rise. As these regulations begin to bite and companies have to purchase additional permits on the open market at realistic prices, it may become financially attractive - if not actually required by law - to fit carbon-capture equipment to their exhaust stacks. 

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