Answer:
they provide incentives for firms to develop technologies that are less polluting.
Explanation:
Pollution can be defined as the physical degradation or contamination of the environment through an emission of harmful, poisonous and toxic chemical substances.
Offset trading refers to a type of trading system that is typically designed for the realization of more efficient pollution control.
This ultimately implies that, it can be described as a program that allows new firms to pay existing firms to reduce their emissions below a standard.
Free market in tradable pollution permits simply means giving manufacturing companies and individuals the legal right to pollution of the environment. For example, XYZ company is purchasing the permit of 500 units of carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution annually, this simply means it is permitted to pollute the environment by 500 units of CO2 annually.
Additionally, a free market in tradable pollution permits has some sort of benefits as companies can resell their unused permits or devise a cheaper means of reducing pollution. It also compensate companies that significantly reduces its pollution of the environment.
Hence, an advantage of tradable emissions permits is that they provide incentives for firms to develop technologies that are less polluting because it would reduce the amount they would have to pay for pollution.
