If anyone had doubts about the importance of the voluntary carbon market they would certainly have been overcome by the announcement last month by Merrill Lynch of a new carbon offset service to assist businesses to reduce emissions through voluntary offsets.

In partnership with ICF International, Merrill Lynch's new Green and Gold initiative is the latest in a series of moves by major financial institutions to position themselves in a market valued by Abyd Karmail, Merrill Lynch's managing director and global head of carbon emissions at over of $70 billion.

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