Nine chief executives and chairmen from around the world have signed up for an exclusive CNBC initiative, "The Carbon Council", aimed at identifying opportunities in clean technology and the larger business of sustainability. 

In addition to the usual specialized brokerage and accounting services any commodity needs, carbon markets also require established standards to ensure credits are reliably similar and registries to track those credits from birth to retirement

As the Markey-Waxman bill on carbon emissions cap-and-trade makes it way through the Senate, a new carbon-counting reality may soon be here for American businesses.