Corruption and crime already taking place in the carbon market
Opinion piece by Julie Bishop, Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Australia) 20th July 2011
Carbon offsets have already run out of credit
“…..It is alarming that the Prime Minister has given no indication that she is aware or has any understanding of the recent history of the operations of international carbon credit markets.
Just six weeks ago, the World Bank reported that the international market in carbon credits has suffered a debilitating collapse and expressed doubt about the ongoing viability of global markets.
According to the World Bank, trading in credits commenced after the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 2005, and about $25 billion was generated over the years to 2009……….
He detailed the first arrival in 2009 of “carbon cowboys” offering villagers “sky money” for the right to use their land in international carbon trading schemes.
This led to alleged corruption of local officials who also stood to gain from these get-rich quick schemes.
Prime Minister Gillard is proposing in her carbon tax policy that an estimated $57 billion of Australian taxpayer funds will be sent offshore to buy “carbon offsets” to enable this country to reach Labor’s new target of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.
Deloittes Australia has warned that carbon credit fraud is “the white collar crime of the future”……
h/t to reader Jessie
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Now you can underrstand why economists like Garnout and ex-bankers like Turnbull (Opposition MP) are so keen for the imposition of a tax. There’s huge money to be made in that there air! And I think many Australians are begining to see this too.
Let’s see if I understand this. The Prime Minister wants to export $57 billion in cash to buy the right to emit the same or more CO2 as previously, but to feel better about your sin. In Martin Luther’s day, they used to call these indulgences. They weren’t falsifiable either, but the church sure made a lot of money.
Yep I picked up on this as well: http://justmeint.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/gillard-leading-us-into-corrupt-action/
Some questions asked after Ms. Bishops writing seem to indicate that readers are confused at to IF Ms. Bishop is simply against buying O/S carbon credits, or is she also against – anti AGW
“This led to alleged corruption of local officials who also stood to gain from these get-rich quick schemes.
Prime Minister Gillard is proposing in her carbon tax policy that an estimated $57 billion of Australian taxpayer funds will be sent offshore to buy “carbon offsets” to enable this country to reach Labor’s new target of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.
Deloittes Australia has warned that carbon credit fraud is “the white collar crime of the future”……”
Money… power… corruption… ad nauseum.
I asked a while back just who people (like us) thought might be in the business of making money offa this scheme……. I do believe the plot is unfolding and the public needs to be kept informed. We must not let this go into ‘quiet mode’……. pressure must be applied at all times.
If Carbon trading was ever to get established where I live, I was going to print out the following and leave copies around the various coffee shops that I frequent:
http://www.probeinternational.org/files/10WaystoGametheCarbonMarkets_Web.pdf
Some information on Carbon Trading
http://www.suite101.com/content/carbon-trade-ends-on-quiet-death-of-chicago-climate-exchange-a305704
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=532610
Drat! And I haven’t been able to get my shorts in place yet!
Bob
This corruption is unprecedented. It appears that the intent of the Gillard governent is either to steal 100 billion A$ or to destroy Australia. Or both, if possible.
Give away $57b for the right to commit economic suicide. What a bargain…
Unfortunately the Liberal (conservative) Opposition is still having a bet each way on the subject of AGW. At least their direct action proposal will have beneficial side effects, i.e. injection of carbon into the soil in farming practices via subsoil exhaust when drilling seed and no till, and tree planting on marginal soils. We already do that, and have become independent of imported building timbers in the last thirty years.
Hopefully, when in power Tony Abbott will be able to say “Climate Chance is cr*p” more often, as he has done so on at least one occasion.
In another thread, Tallbloke asked a great question …
Repeating what I said then: If this sucker drags down anyone other than the dimwits that voluntarily became involved, woe be to them. Remember that Enron and Ken Lay and most other large-scale Wall Street fiascos were primarily driven in the media by the collateral damage to innocent 3rd (or 4th really) parties.
This thing should have been labeled an ENRON pump-and-dump from the beginning. Now there is two birds with one stone! The public can easily relate to the comparison, and, the green machine (pun intended) gets stuck with a label that will drive them certifiably insane.
But then I see today in this thread …
Talk about poetic justice. However, when the bottom falls out on their pension statements, they will of course suck up to the taxpayers for a bailout anyway. You cannot win.
One thing is for sure, this should never have been be allowed. NEVER! The BBC investing in something they are actively campaigning for, similar to GE here in the USA with windmills and other crap, there should have been a bright line and prison for everybody that willingly crossed over it.
Now we have the precedent of Ken lay (remember making false and misleading statements) in place for the next group of convicts. Al Gore, BBC executives, Pauchuri, Hansen and any other player that pumped up this Carbon Trading scheme while scaremongering about the end of the world.
Please let me live long enough to see their perp walks.
Didn’t Europe see massive ‘carbon trading fraud’ back in 2007 / 8 / 9?
It seems that some people do not learn from the mistakes of others.
It is just the selling of indulgences in the modern time!
Con men have been trying to sell nothing, for a whole lotta of something, since the beginning of time. I find it interesting that BP was the first oil company to get into carbon trading, sitting on a board for several years. Two months before the “spill” that Homeland Security and local police guarded from land and air like the KGB, BP left that board, declaring they were going to do their own Carbon Scheme through their company.
I’m going to guess that we have many politicians, that have invested in this snake oil that does zero for the planet, but make them very rich and continues their redistribution agenda.
It also allowed the Al Gores to continue their over-the-top, extravagant lifestyles, essentially money laundering their wealth, and cover from the charge of fraud with the sheep that follow them. I can’t wait till they share a cell with Bernie Madoff.
Corrupt science at its worst, for sure!
A good man driven from “the science that pays”
http://people.iarc.uaf.edu/~sakasofu/climate.php
Never thought I’d see somebody trying to bailout a thin air market.
From R. M. Lansford on July 23, 2011 at 11:01 pm:
Switch to boxers, less positioning required.
===
Minor quibble about something in the full article:
The United States withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in March 2001 and has indicated it will not commit to any replacement treaty…
I thought the US was never really in it, it was never ratified by the Senate nor enacted in federal policy, thus there was no “withdrawing” from Kyoto.
What is being referred to? Was there an official declaration that VP Al Gore scribbling his name on it didn’t count?
Casper says: July 24, 2011 at 12:15 am
I do not understand this as the selling of indulgences in the modern time.
Western democracies are secular governments. This is an issue of the science, the development of policies, including international trade agreements and questions of integrity in fiscal spending decisions/directions. WUWT have previoulsy discussed this under national security issues.
Perhaps of further interest is the 2002 FBI media release on white collar crime
http://www2.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel02/wc3030602.htm
and the media release provides further explanation in the paper
Barnett C, (undated) Measurement of White Collar Crime using Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Data
Note lack of classifications and descriptors as discussed in the report. Also Appendix A
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs_wcc.pdf
source: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr
Dam easy way to make dam good money , you can see way some are attracted to it .
People have always shown a willingness to hand over cash for what they known quite often is worthless , this is just doing on a government scale.
Gary Mount, you are giving instructions to scammers, and at the end, you still assume that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and needs regulating.
Search for what Vaclav Klaus has to say. (23/07 10.35am)
I am surprised that corruption is rife in the carbon trading market. Sorry I left out the word ‘not’ so it now makes sense.
All carbon trade markets are corrupt, American, European, Australian, need I go on?
My cry to Australia to ‘Vote Gillard Out’ seems to have fallen on deal ears.
I meant ‘deaf not ‘deal’. Sorry it the age creeping up.
Two days ago my husband received a phone call from of all places, Gibraltar, the person asking him whether he is interested in buying carbon credits to offset a particular business. My husband does the books for our son’s business here and in the U.S. The business name commences with an ‘A’, so perhaps they are just going through the business phone book. Is this the usual approach? How would anyone know how many or what type to buy over the phone even if they wanted to? Maybe this is the first of many calls to come.
John Marshall
We would love to vote Gillard out. If the polls are correct then there would only be 28 Labor members in the 150 member Parliament. Gillard exists as PM on the vote of two Independants, both of whom support her against the wishes of their conservative electorates. If an election was called they would lose their seats as would the single Green in the Lower house. The only way we can have an election before the next one is due in two years time is if a Labor member dies, resigns or crosses the floor. None would be courageous enough to cross the floor. In the meantime we put up with one lie after another from this truly inept and deceiptful government. Julia hopes we will be forgiving enough in two years time to vote them back in. The anger I see is as it was in NSW and the voters just bided their time to decimate Labor in that state. Next March Queensland goes to an election and looks set for a Labor wipeout. People are furious and will punish anyone of the Party. Even ex labor politicians are scathing in their criticism of Julia’s tax.