SAP surprised investors on Wednesday by cutting its full year sales outlook on a weak performance in emerging markets and Japan, just as rivals had given cause for hope that tech spending was on the rise.

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.