Carbon-trading systems [1] will likely be a boon to lawyers, lobbyists and arbitrage junkies, a panel on emissions trading heard at the International Economic Forum of the Americas conference underway in Montreal.

But it is unlikely that the requisite global trading mechanisms will be in place and working quickly enough to rescue the planet from a climate catastrophe, Michael Dorsey, an environmental studies professor at DartmouthCollege in the U.S., said.