The European Union climate chief said last week that the United Nation's carbon market will survive even if greenhouse gas reduction goals for developed nations expire in 2012 without an immediate renewal. Connie Hedegaard, EU Climate Commissioner, said "We should still try to avoid the gap, but as Europe is the main player in the game, as we have legislation, targets, rules on offsetting, I cannot see why we wouldn’t continue to work with [UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)] projects." Hedegaard said that the EU cap-and-trade system, valued at $119.8 billion last year, would remain the market's driving force and that the CDM would continue largely as it is now. Europe's program allows emitters to use CDM offset credits as a means of cheaper compliance with EU limits, and last year companies used a record 137 million credits. A study released last week said that emissions trading schemes in the developing world would not be mature enough to link to the EU's carbon market before 2020 and that climate policy will revolve around non-emissions trading scheme policies like the Clean Development Mechanism. For the full story, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-23/un-carbon-market-will-survive-should-kyoto-goals-end-eu-says.html. For the study, see http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/09/21/idINIndia-59473020110921.