Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 03/18/2010 7:36:42 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
But, if someone sold you two million Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) that were worthless, how could you tell? They are “certified”. They are real “certificates”, and as long as you believe they exist, perhaps they do? Welcome to the world of fiat currencies, where confidence doesn’t just make or break a market; it’s its sole underwriter.
Times Online reports on the Chaos in the carbon market over recycled permits.
The Hungarian Government, the cheeky sods, figured out that if CERs were issued by the UN (and not the EU), they could use them to write off the obligations of some Hungarian companies, and then, apparently, sell them again, so others could use them to write off their obligations, too.
It’s like reselling a three-course meal after it’s been eaten.
When confronted, the Hungarian Government claimed the used CERs were only sold to non-European investors. (So that makes it alright then? Someone outside Europe wasted money?)
Except that, as things do in a “free” market, the used CERs turned up in the EU market anyway, and eventually someone noticed.
“BlueNext and Nord Pool, the French and Nordic exchanges, suspended trading in certificates of emission reduction (CERs) when it emerged that some had been illegally reused.”
The value of the CERs promptly fell from €12 per tonne of carbon to less than €1.
“The European commission will suspend the surrendering of allowances, CERs and ERUs, it said today.”
Things are tough for the fledgeling carbon currency market. First the individual governments issued too many permits, creating a glut and crash. Then the top two auditors of the European system were busted, one after the other, and suspended for irregularities. Then Europol discovered that some traders had found a way to collect taxes on behalf of the government, and keep the money for themselves. The fraud may have cost taxpayers about seven billion dollars, and in some markets amounted to 90% of the volume. (See CBC Canada.)
Hopeful souls imagine that they can improve the regulations or auditing, or close the loopholes, but that’s just the problem: In a fake market based on an unmeasurable, unverifiable thing like the motivations of Third World businessmen, the market itself is the loophole. The only way to close the loophole is to close the market.
Hat tip to Colin in the UK.
fyi
Ping.
I am so sick of what’s being hammered down our throats, I wanna puke. So tired of talking to smarmy congressional aides on the phone, I truly wish I could reach thru the lines and strangle.
I have Dana Rohrbacher as my H of R person.....but my Senators are Boxer and Feinswhine....nuff said there...!
Soom, there will be derivatives on these things and before you know it, a carbon credit bubble will exist.
No wonder Obama and the Leftist want CAP and Tax in the US.
Once we jump in with capntrade (carbon), this alone can bankrupt us in 6 years...our carbon credits will only last six years...and, six years from now there will be no adequate tax base to pay our way after that:
“Fair carbon means no carbon for rich countries
* 21 September 2009 by Jim Giles
WHAT might a truly fair and effective solution to climate change look like? One answer to that question has just been released and it makes for disturbing reading. For one thing, the scale and speed of emissions cuts required by developed nations is far greater than the commitments governments are currently willing to make.
The new analysis is based on the idea that each person on the planet has the right to the same carbon footprint. Researchers at the German Advisory Council on Global Change, which advises the country’s government, looked at the impact of this fairness principle on attempts to limit the average global temperature rise to 2 °C, a level that is widely regarded as necessary to avoid disaster, such as high rises in sea level.
Calculations published earlier this year (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature08017) suggested that no more than 750 billion tonnes of carbon can be released between now and 2050 if the world is to have a 2-in-3 chance of staying within the 2 °C rise. If that global allowance was distributed according to population levels, many developed nations would face almost immediate carbon bankruptcy.
With 4.6 per cent of global population, the US would receive a 35 billion tonne allowance between now and 2050, which it would use up in around six years at current rates. The European Union’s budget would run out in 12 years and China’s in 24. “It is clear that the industrialised countries must carry out rapid and comprehensive decarbonisation if they wish to present themselves as credible advocates of global climate protection,” concludes the council.
The US carbon budget would run out in six years, Europe’s in 12 and China’s in 24 years
Big emitters like the US would only be able to meet their target by buying unused emissions from poorer nations that have large populations but low per-capita emissions. For example, India and Brazil’s allowances would last 88 and 46 years respectively at current rates. That imbalance has benefits, says the council, because the money transferred would help poorer nations to improve their living standards using low-carbon technology such as wind and solar electricity generation.”
.
Who issues these blasted things, anyhow?
When issued they should be dedicated to a use. If not used they should have to be reissued through the issuer to somebody else.
Assuming they mean a blasted thing in the first place (and since global warming response to CO2 is logarithmic, not linear, they are hardly worth a fart in a volcano).
Not just eaten, but thoroughly "processed".
As in, a bushel of oats that has already been through the horse.
You are right, but even horse dung is useful to certain other lower forms of life. This bill benefits nobody, except our favorite lowest form of life -- democrats.
Probably some EU Agency!
What are they going to do when their homelands turn into cold dark ice bound landscapes in the near future. Perhaps they will burn the useless certificates they purchased to keep from freezing to death.
Doncha hate it when that happens?
I’ve been looking at that....that would be a real change...how do the politicians get paid off....won’t happen other wise.
LOL! Oh well... At least I kept the creeps of this world from owning it, which was the primary goal.
Did you see the new book? It's amazing (seriously).
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