- Feb 12, 2007
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Methinks that most former Enron traders are now working in the Carbon Credits industry.
The Financial Times has a good expose on the fraud going on in the carbon credit trading. I wonder if Al Gore will be the Ken Lay of 2010.
...The growing political salience of environmental politics has sparked a green gold rush, which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go carbon neutral, offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their contribution to global warming.
The burgeoning regulated market for carbon credits is expected to more than double in size to about $68.2bn by 2010, with the unregulated voluntary sector rising to $4bn in the same period.
The FT investigation found:
■ Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.
■ Industrial companies profiting from doing very little or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.
■ Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.
■ A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.
■ Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.
Francis Sullivan, environment adviser at HSBC, the UKs biggest bank that went carbon-neutral in 2005, said he found serious credibility concerns in the offsetting market after evaluating it for several months.
The police, the fraud squad and trading standards need to be looking into this. Otherwise people will lose faith in it, he said....
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/48e334ce-f355-11db-9845-000b5df10621.html
The Financial Times has a good expose on the fraud going on in the carbon credit trading. I wonder if Al Gore will be the Ken Lay of 2010.
...The growing political salience of environmental politics has sparked a green gold rush, which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go carbon neutral, offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their contribution to global warming.
The burgeoning regulated market for carbon credits is expected to more than double in size to about $68.2bn by 2010, with the unregulated voluntary sector rising to $4bn in the same period.
The FT investigation found:
■ Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.
■ Industrial companies profiting from doing very little or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.
■ Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.
■ A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.
■ Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.
Francis Sullivan, environment adviser at HSBC, the UKs biggest bank that went carbon-neutral in 2005, said he found serious credibility concerns in the offsetting market after evaluating it for several months.
The police, the fraud squad and trading standards need to be looking into this. Otherwise people will lose faith in it, he said....
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/48e334ce-f355-11db-9845-000b5df10621.html
