Carbon emissions trading could become the world’s leading derivatives product as businesses in Asia and the US move to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and competition intensifies between exchanges, according to a senior US market regulator.

Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said: “I can certainly see carbon becoming the biggest of any derivatives product in the next four to five years. And that would of course mean overtaking T-bills [Treasury] and any contract that is out there right now.”