The global carbon credit market has nearly tripled in the last three years, according to New Carbon Finance. The market is a key part of the global effort to reduce emissions and protect the environment, as stipulated by the Kyoto Protocol.

Through joint implementation projects, companies can acquire carbon credits from other firms – as long as the end result is emissions reduction.

The Russian government has announced plans to approve the country's first joint implementation projects this summer.

Russia is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States.

The World Bank says that Russia's Kyoto target of a zero per cent increase on 1990 emission levels by 2012 may not be attainable.

“That market is still in its infant stages, so we should not declare victory before we have achieved it. What we really need for the post-Kyoto phase, after 2012, is a much broader financing mechanism. There will be additional costs for environmentally friendly production in the short term, but in the medium term it is in the interest of everyone,”said Klaus Rohland, the chief representative of the World Bank.