Abuse and incompetence in fight against global warming

[cal04]

Up to 20% of carbon savings in doubt as monitoring firms criticised by UN body
A Guardian investigation has found evidence of serious irregularities at the heart of the process the world is relying on to control global warming.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), 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incompetence, rule-breaking and possible fraud by companies in the developing world, according to UN paperwork, an unpublished expert report and alarming feedback from projects on the ground.

One senior figure suggested there may be faults with up to 20% of the carbon credits - known as certified emissions reductions - already sold. Since these are used by European governments and corporations to justify increases in emissions, the effect is that in some cases malpractice at the CDM has added to the net amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

The problems focus on the specialist companies that validate and verify the projects in the developing world which produce the certified emission reductions. Three of those companies have failed spot checks, which revealed a catalogue of weakness.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2093835,00.html

[razzleberry]

1. the whole concept is a fraud

there is every incentive to approve
every scam

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Trading shares in a market environment leads to abuse? Who could have predicted it? nt