The Guardian newspaper critiques emissions trading |
In June, journalist Nick Davies published three well-researched articles in the Guardian newspaper which were highly critical of the Clean Development Mechanism, emissions trading and the voluntary carbon offset market.
2 June, 2007
The Clean Development Mechanism, which is supposed to offset greenhouse gases emitted in the developed world by selling carbon credits from elsewhere, has been contaminated by gross incompetence, rule-breaking and possible fraud by companies in the developing world, according to UN paperwork, an unpublished expert report and alarming feedback from projects on the ground.
2 June, 2007
This article suggests that carbon trading has earned fortunes for speculators and for some of the companies which produce most greenhouse gases and yet, through a combination of teething troubles and multiple forms of malpractice and possibly fraud, it has delivered little or no benefit for the environment.
16 June, 2007
Even the most well-intentioned schemes suffer from basic weaknesses in the idea of carbon offsetting - an idea which flows not from environmentalists and climate scientists trying to design a way to reverse global warming but from politicians and business executives trying to meet the demands for action while preserving the commercial status quo. |