This lays out the basics of tax vs. trade. In the article you link, all he's done is offer some objections to how the ETS scheme as currently configured isn't working optimally. That's hardly an objection to carbon trading as an instrument. In fact, it has the advantage that you can set where you want to end up before you start out, unlike a tax, which very much leaves that to "market forces". Of course, the actual answer is that if you want to shift policy in a green direction, you need a bit of both.

Btw, there's no analogy between air and land. Air is a renewable resource; land is finite. It's quite acceptable for inductry to "use" some of that air in pollution, as long as they are paying the real cost (market price+externality) for it. The real problem is working out how to do that sum."