However, allowance trading worked very well in controlling acid rain - one of the incentives to use it on carbon emissions as well.
There's a key difference: the time lag between emissions and acid rain is short. Stopping the formation of nitric and sulfuric acids in the atmosphere happened shortly after the emissions ended. Not so with carbon dioxide; the time lag is decades. Even if all CO2 emissions stopped tomorrow, the Earth would still continue to warm.
This might seem like cause for pessimism, and perhaps it is. But it also undermines the sense of urgency, almost desperation, among many environmentalists that we should "do something", no matter how ill-thought-out that something may be. It seems better just to wait, and try not to do too much harm in the short run.
Maybe we're doomed, maybe technology will save us. Either way, it's going to be a heck of a ride. :-)
However, allowance trading worked very well in controlling acid rain - one of the incentives to use it on carbon emissions as well.