Carbon Credit Watch Blogs

As rich countries continue with plans to pour money into forestry programs in the developing world as a way to combat climate change they should heed warnings that the programs will fail to reduce carbon emissions, strip local citizens of their ownership rights, and be ridden with fraud and corruption. Yet, governments in the developed world seem intent on ignoring these warnings, as they recently pledged another $500-million—on top of the $3.5-billion they promised at Copenhagen’s UN Climate Conference in December—to carbon-reducing forestry programs in the developing world.  read more »

Seeing countries around the world back away from their climate change commitments, and seeing his own electoral support crumble, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today that Australia will be shelving its cap and trade program for at least three years, until after the next election.  read more »

Carbon markets are again facing allegations of a scam involving the trading of carbon credits. Reuters reports the Australian company WesternField Holdings Inc. has been accused of defrauding investors down under of A$3.5 million ($3.2 million) through a telemarketing swindle. Although blacklisted by the country's securities regulator, the firm continues to operate.  read more »

Banks and other investors are pulling out of the carbon market after government leaders at last month’s meeting in Copenhagen failed to come up with new emissions targets beyond the current Kyoto Treaty, which ends in 2012. According to a recent report in the UK Guardian, a number of carbon financiers have already begun leaving banks in London due to a lack of activity and a pull-back in investment demand.  read more »

CBC’s Rex Murphy weighs in on the controversy surrounding the hacked documents from servers at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU).  read more »

59% of Americans say it's at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming, according to a Rasmussen survey released yesterday. 35% say it's Very Likely and just 26% say it's not very or not at all likely that some scientists falsified data.  read more »

A recent article in the Telegraph examines the rise in UK tax fraud in carbon emissions trading market. The scheme is a variation on the VAT carousel fraud, where criminals import products VAT-free from EU member states, then sell the goods in the UK with a VAT charge, only to quickly disappear without turning over the VAT charge to the UK's customs and tax department, Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.  read more »