The green gold rush.
Above: Not for the faint hearted, boffins Schneider and Heller discuss CC and CTS. Yawn, ooops sorry, no this is serious stuff (Google Tech Talks 27/01/07).
The European systems of carbon credits and offsetting are in danger of becoming more climate headache than climate antidote.
A FT investigation suggests: organisations are paying for phantom emission reductions, huge profits are going to credit trading companies and polluters are getting paid to reduce emissions, which they where going to do anyway (source).
In another piece, the UK environment department (Defra) has come under criticism for promoting an EU emission trading scheme (ETS) which effectively, offers “permits to pollute” (source).
Permits to pollute, because far too many credits were given at the start of the ETS, making them too cheap and not a representation of the true cost of cleaning up a tonne of carbon.
PI will be down B&Q buying its own trees from now on.
END
Lowdown on EU ETS
Carbon offsetting a misguided philosophy?
3 comments:
I think carbon off-setting schemes are a great idea. They let me fly around the UK as much as I like, without any of the guilt!
I want to see other industries following suit. What about a new range at GAP - for an extra £2.50 per T-shirt you're guaranteed it was made by someone over the age of 14, with a minimum of 1 toilet break every 24 hours? Do you think it would take off?
Nice, you have hit the nail on the head with the problem of offsetting.
There are ethical clothing ranges but sadly we always go for the cheapest.
You have quoted Gap, Hattie, but the following web link
http://www.cleanupfashion.co.uk/companies/gap.php
will detail how clothing companies are being forced to clean up their act. From their report you can see that Gap are no longer the sweatshop baddies they once were.
Myabe Asda would have been a better example?
You can download the full report here
http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/images/pdf/cleanupfashion.pdf
Have been dying to have something to say on your blog tom!
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