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Ian Johnson, chair of IDEAcarbon, said the retail sector needed more public education and knowledge before it could participate.

"A clear signal will also be needed that this is a longer-term market," he said. "There is an awful lot of people who would still find it an odd market to be in."

He said the UN could provide such a signal at its meeting on climate change in Copenhagen towards the end of 2009 and EU political parties were already committed to climate change issues.

He also cited liquidity and transparent trading as crucial issues in an environment where many transactions are still over-the-counter.

"We want carbon to be a commodity like any other," he added. "Moving away from over-the-counter deals and more towards an exchange-traded situation is really what is needed."

But he said the date by which the UN might establish a retail-friendly global emissions trading network was 2030. It would be better if the UN renegotiated this to 2050, as it would allow more time to work on the details, Mr Johnson explained.

In particular, it would take a long time to generate enough carbon credits to make a global system workable.

"For many of these long-term capital assets, you’re talking about a 20-40-year time horizon,” he said. “In the meantime, what we’re likely to see is a mosaic of trading systems with their own rules and peculiarities."