Posted on 09/29/2007 1:21:27 PM PDT by Lorianne
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazil's largest city sold millions of dollars worth of carbon credits at an auction Wednesday in a deal that experts said paves the way for developing countries to make money fighting global warming.
Brazil's Mercantile and Futures Exchange called Sao Paulo's sale of $18.5 million in carbon credits to Dutch-Belgian Fortis Bank the first such sale to be held on a regulated stock market and a significant step toward institutionalizing the carbon market.
Under the Kyoto Treaty on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, companies that generate large amounts of polluting carbon dioxide and methane can buy offsetting credits from projects that remove contaminants.
Until Wednesday's auction on the Brazil stock exchange, companies such as Fortis mostly purchased credits from individual sellers. Experts said the sale could be a major step toward creating a clearer system that could make buying and selling easier.
Fortis Bank beat out 13 competing bids to win the rights to emit 808,450 metric tons (891,163 U.S. tons) of carbon dioxide with an offer of $22.90 per metric ton, the exchange said in statement. It called it the first such sale on a regulated exchange.
"In the past these deals have been worked out in private," said Marcelo Furtado, director of Greenpeace's Brazilian campaign. "It's a victory for society to have this additional accountability."
Benjamin Vitale, Conservation International's Senior Adviser on Eco-System Markets and Finance, said he was not sure if this marked the first time such emission credits had been traded on a regulated exchange, but it certainly was a first for a developing country.
"I think the importance of this is twofold: The more developing countries' financial services sectors can be trading this kind of asset and commodity regularly, just like they trade soy in Brazil, it enables them to trade other credit like emissions from deforestation," Vitale said by telephone from Virginia.
"It also helps get out the word about climate change and why it's important for Brazil."
The World Bank says the global carbon market _ where government and industry limits on carbon dioxide emissions are traded like credits _ tripled from $7.9 billion in 2005 to $24.4 billion last year.
The auctioned credits were created for Sao Paulo's government by a project at the Bandeirantes Landfill to generate energy from the methane gas produced by the tons of solid residues it receives per day. The project is run by privately held Biogas Energia Ambiental SA.
"This is important because the city is making a significant contribution to control greenhouse gases," said Stella Goldstein, deputy secretary of the city government.
Fortis has been positioning itself as a broker in the energy market, purchasing credits and selling them to companies that need to meet European pollution standards with offset carbon credits.
In the European Union, emission permits have been trading at around $30.33 a ton, while UN certified credits like the ones sold in Sao Paulo have been trading at around $20.56.
The Kyoto Protocol caps the amount of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane produced by power plants and factories in more than two dozen countries. Such gases are believed to contribute to the warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
The United States has not signed the treaty.
Sheeple longing for fulfillment to fill the void between the ears.
Just follow the money to find the root of this Ponzi scheme.
For the sake of humanity and our sovereign nation, let's keep it that way!
Soon to come will be a drive to finance very large corks to plug all the volcano's on earth.
Bunch of friggin idiots.
It's sacrilegious arrogance that makes some believe that we as humans are actually god's and can alter the fate of the universe.
” like believing in leprechauns and trolls.”
Don’t forget believing in oGre s too!
This is almost as funny as the “carbon tax” imposed upon the subjects of the UK.
Maybe they should design and build a brand new capital city, again?
” It’s sacrilegious arrogance that makes some believe that we as humans are actually god’s and can alter the fate of the universe.”
That’s a very good observation, what you said is a very “root” idea that most don’t understand.
It very much underlies much of the left’s thought processes.
Try following their thought process politically and it will lead to insanity if one places too much focus on it. ; ) (twitch...twitch...)
Who *does* end up getting the money?
Those who didn't earn it in the first place.
Today via the U.N.
Tomorrow? Who knows.
The USA could save over 300 million metric tonnes of CO2 every year by deporting the 20 million illegal aliens.
If I’m paid enough, I won’t build a 200 megawatt coal-powered generating plant in my garage. The carbon savings will be enormous. What am I bid?
I promise not to burn down my house.
Send me $100 - cash.
What am I bid for all the atmospheric carbon dioxide in the northern hemisphere?
Send me $100 and I will go out and burn an old tire in Al Gore’s name. A reverse carbon off-set.
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