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EATURES AIN

A host of ways to cash in on the effort to reduce greenhouse gases.

CHANGE IS IN THE AIR. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S inauguration Tuesday should revive environmental initiatives that wilted under his predecessor. One of the most important is "cap and trade," a market-based system designed to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming. Thursday, a group of companies and other backers came out in support of cap-and-trade legislation. Investors soon will hear a lot more about it.

Cap and trade has strong support within the new administration. Obama was on the board of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago when it helped fund the Chicago Climate Exchange (owned by Climate Exchange , ticker: CLE.UK), which runs a voluntary cap-and-trade program and trades carbon futures. The Environmental Protection Agency's new director, Lisa Jackson, was New Jersey's representative on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or Reggie, a promising cap-and-trade program for 10 Middle Atlantic and northeastern states.

Look for new proposals to emerge in the House (from Henry Waxman, Edward Markey and Nancy Pelosi) and the Senate (possibly from Barbara Boxer, John McCain and Joseph Lieberman).

Richard Sandor, the CCX's chairman and chief executive, who's credited with inventing interest-rate futures, has attracted about 400 entities, including Monsanto (MON), IBM (IBM) and Intel (INTC), as well as the city of Chicago, to sign on to a voluntary program that mandates an emissions cap.

At least three regional U.S. groups are in various stages of development: Reggie, the Western Climate Initiative and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord (the latter two won't be operational till 2012). A mandatory cap-and-trade program is in its fourth year in Europe. Trading volume there doubled last year, and prices have fluctuated, hitting $43 a ton at one point before sliding to ...

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