The Korean carbon trading market got off to a very slow start in the first month of its operation. A sluggish beginning was largely expected, but this should not allow officials to get complacent.

The Korea Exchange, the nation’s main bourse and the operator of the emissions trading market, said that only 1,380 tons of emissions allowances ― with a total value of 11.55 million won ($10,500) ― changed hands in the first month of trading since Jan. 12. There was not a single transaction in all but four days ― all in the first week ― during the entire one-month period.

We share the view of government officials that the market needs time to take root, as happened in the European Union, where the trading volume in 2005, its opening year, was limited to 1 percent of its current level.

Nevertheless, the Korean carbon exchange’s poor report card for the first month goes beyond our expectations, and this calls for all concerned parties ― especially government authorities ― to take supplementary measures.

One of the urgent problems to be tackled is readjustment of the amount of emissions allowances. Businesses insist that the 1.6 billion tons allocated to 525 installations is too small ― in fact, it accounts for 80 percent of the emission quotas requested by the installations.

It is understandable that businesses have been crying foul against emissions quotas, with some going on to take legal action, which is widely seen as justified in some cases.

A group of 17 firms in the nonmetal manufacturing sector filed an administrative suit. Their logic is that the nonmetal industry should get a larger proportion of emissions allowances than the metal industry because it is growing far faster, but the government allocations were based on uniform criteria.

That petrochemical companies are moving to file a similar class action suit and pressure government officials to review the way they allocated the emissions quotas for each sector and individual installations.

In this context, the government did the right thing when it decided to increase the emissions quotas of 40 installations ― out of 243 who appealed their original allocations ― by a total of 6.7 million tons.

The government is advised to see whether there is room to readjust the emissions allowances, on the condition that the goal ― for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 million tons by 2017 and 30 percent below the business-as-usual levels by 2020 ― is kept intact. It will do well to devise supplementary programs to help the emissions trading scheme take root early.