Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Obvious outcome of overallocation...

Overallocation of carbon emission permits. Whilst the 20,000 delegates (How many???!!!), descend on Copenhagen, "1,200 limousines have flooded into the Danish capital (forget about public transport)" [Link] !! Naturally, there is an underlying motivation for some: many will benefit greatly from ETS (no I do not mean enfermedades de transmisión sexual (ETS, in English STDs although there is plenty of "free sex" on offer) but I refer to the EU's "carbon credits" given under the European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS).

"...the ETS has been turned into a system for generating free subsidies."

A system under which Britain's richest resident, the Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, is set to benefit from a £1bn windfall in "carbon credits". The same Lakshmi Mittal that is a major donor to the labour Party, the same man, let's not forget, that the Government helped to clinch a £70 million "soft" loan, funded by taxpayers, to allow him to buy Romania's Sidex steelworks.

Well his company stands to gain immensely but only after threatening to relocate if made to pay for carbon certificates (like a carbon tax) and "Following intense lobbying and claims that the scheme would harm business, the cap on emissions was set too high and too many permits were issued"... Details emerged after inquries by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) "Exposing the power of corporate lobbying in the EU". Also from The revelations of an analysis by Anna Pearson and Sandbag. (a PDF of their 'ETS SOS' is HERE). Anyway, they are not alone and others support the criticisms of carbon trading: Professor Jim Hansen (Director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies..yes, the same one who said the Copenhagen summit was a farce) who also prefers alternatives e.g. a direct tax on carbon. He said:

"The corporates see emissions trading as a huge opportunity to boost profits."

Update: 3:45pm. Oh the Irony...Copenhagen climate summit apparently in disarray as developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement.

Bookmark and Share

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not just Mittal, the TATA "scientist" as well (TERI)

Span Ows said...

Thank you anónimo! I see Euro Referendum digging in deep over Dr Pachauri!!