Surprise: Carbon Trading Scheme Increased Emissions

There was cheating involved. Can you imagine that?

(Politico) A flawed scheme that allowed companies to earn tradable carbon credits for projects supposed to abate industrial gases actually created a “perverse” incentive to generate more waste, leading to an increase in global emissions instead of cuts, according to a new study.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) found that the credits may have increased emissions by as much as 600 million tons of carbon dioxide.

“What was shocking for us was the extent of the problem — we didn’t expect that it would be so big,” said Anja Kollmuss, an SEI associate who led the study.

The study could create problems for global climate talks later this year because they undercut the credibility of carbon trading schemes, one of the most popular ways of using market mechanisms to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

One of the most popular among people who a) want to increase the size and scope of the government, b) want to redistribute Other People’s wealth, and c), refuse to make changes within their own lives to go carbon neutral.

Virtually every carbon trading scheme is failing because the cost of the credits has collapsed to “junk bond” status. And those who are forced to participate work to find ways around them, as well as pass on the costs to the consumers.

The worst offenders were in Ukraine and Russia, where the system was riddled with corruption, the Stockholm authors wrote in an article published Monday by the Nature Climate Change journal. They noted “perverse effects” that had the operators of three chemical plants removing safeguards and increasing the production of powerful greenhouse gases to earn more lucrative credits.

“If you produced more greenhouse gases only to destroy them and generate more carbon credits, you would essentially be damaging the climate for profit,” said Lambert Schneider, an SEI associate and co-author of the study.

So, the carbon trading scheme enticed the companies to engage in bad behavior. Where were the government bureaucrats?

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8 Responses to “Surprise: Carbon Trading Scheme Increased Emissions”

  1. drowningpuppies says:

    Where were the government bureaucrats?

    Apparently setting up secret email accounts to “do” government business.

  2. GOODSTUFF says:

    Do you have procrastination issues? Do you want buy prepaid carbon credits for our next vacation? Are you monetarily challenged by the banking calamity? Looking to buy/trade carbon credits to increase your holdings.

    GOODSTUFF’S CARBON MARKETPLACE and EXCHANGE

    Is where you can exchange, sell, buy, barter or trade carbon credits. The aim is to make this the one stop pump and dump carbon offset exchange. With G-COME you can now participate in a program where Aggregators and Brokers are not taking their slice of the carbon offset pie in the sky.

    http://goodstuffsworld.blogspot.com/2012/08/goodstuffs-carbon-marketplace-and.html

  3. Jeffery says:

    So, the carbon trading scheme enticed the companies to engage in bad behavior.

    Companies don’t rob people, businessmen rob people.

    Enticed? So when a white millionaire commits a crime, stealing millions, he’s “enticed”? lol

    It’s not the criminal that’s at fault, it’s the law!

    The millionaires and billionaires didn’t commit a crime, they engaged in “bad behavior”! lol

  4. david7134 says:

    Jeff,
    You are definitely one of the biggest racist and bigots I have seen.

  5. Jeffery says:

    dave,

    Cracker, please!

    I wish that we crackers weren’t so greedy and cruel, but we can’t deny our long history. Why do you think almost all white collar crime is committed by white men? Why do you think most government subsidies (in total dollars) go to white men? Tax cheats – white guys. Offshore accounts – white guys. Cost overruns – white guys. OSHA violations – white guys. Tobacco companies – white guys. Housing market crash and Wall Street banksters – white guys! Civil war – white southerners wanting to keep their slaves! Native American genocide – white guys. Holocaust – white guys.

    It’s not racist to point out facts, is it? Black guys commit more street level crime than their proportion in the population predicts. Is that racist? I don’t think so.

  6. drowningpuppies says:

    Stage 6.

  7. david7134 says:

    jeff,
    You really need help if you are an adult, if an adolescent (like I suspect), you need to grow up.

  8. jl says:

    “Carbon trading scheme increases emissions.” You just can’t find people any dumber than this.

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