This report is from Europe via The Times Online. Meanwhile back here in the USA, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is going through a record period of low price (ten cents a metric ton) and extended lull in trading:
“Dead” is a word that might describe trading on this exchange.
Maybe it has something to do with the members of the advisory board? On it we find Ed Begley Jr., Joe Kennedy II, and Dr. Rajenda Pachauri. With a team like that, how could it fail? The real problem with carbon credits is that there’s nothing tangible to trade. It’s all spun from thin air, literally. At least if you trade pork bellies, corn, wheat, or even orange juice, there’s something tangible that will eventually be delivered somewhere – Anthony
Europe’s emissions trading system was in uproar yesterday amid a mounting scandal over “recycled” carbon permits.
Two carbon exchanges were forced to suspend trading as panic hit investors fearful that they had bought invalid permits.
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.
Concern that used and worthless permits were circulating caused the spot price of the certificates to collapse, from €12 per tonne of carbon to less than €1 .
The scare erupted after Hungary said last week that it had sold 2 million CERs submitted by Hungarian companies to satisfy their carbon emission allowances under the EU’s emission trading system (ETS).
Carbon permits submitted by companies every year to the national register are usually cancelled. However, Hungary exploited a loophole that allows CERs — which are issued not by European Union governments but by the United Nations under its Clean Development Mechanism — to be traded.
Investors in the carbon market took fright as it emerged that some of the Hungarian CERs had found their way back into the market, despite having been used to meet the carbon targets of Hungarian companies.
The double counting is threatening confidence in the ETS, according to staff at one energy consultancy. Icis Heren said: “For companies obliged by law to buy carbon credits … government-led carbon credit recycling means they risk buying a worthless asset.”
The Hungarian Government said that the used CERs were sold to non-European investors, but BlueNext said that it had found some of the suspect CERs trading on its system.
It appears to me that the carbon traders have left their noncarbon footprints as result stepping of something more familiar and tangible that was deposited by a low-belching cow at the carbon trading post. They missed a real market opportunity that I can buy at Lowes for $1.45 a bag.
Allow me to shed a tear or two for Goldman Sachs and their ilk. So their latest scheme for global robbery isn’t working out as planned – cry me a river. Somebody should have pointed out that you can only steal so much before there is nothing much left of value. An individual with nothing left to loose is a dangerous animal indeed.
Thieves all. May the national razor see them to their end as it has seen all their predecessors to theirs. Play with fire an’ all that.
Come on boys and girls – when some thug is taking the food from your mouth it really is time to fight back or starve. Make a choice.
Buckwheat
March 20, 2010 8:21 am
DOA is the proper term for the carbon footprint for those coming down from the tallest banana tree in the jungle.
Bryan Clark
March 20, 2010 8:34 am
LarryD (08:40:05) :
“Supposedly, the average carbon burden of us Westerners is 20 t/year,
so the answer is: 50 years.”
How is this calculated LD? Anyone have a good website for accurately determining this? I don’t know about you, but this could be considered a “fuzzy” average.
Bones
March 20, 2010 2:19 pm
The problem was perceived as how to pay for the alternative energy technology? So demon CO2 was fingered and a “credits” market invented. Trouble is, as Anthony and others point out, there is no commodity. You can’t sell CO2 if the trading scheme fails. And it has failed.
If government had its wits about it, it would belt tighten to pay for new tech. Why rely on new taxes – why not re-allocate current tax revenue and cut spending? Or is that too much government sacrifice?
Jon-Anders Grannes
March 21, 2010 11:53 am
I never belived that I would have to pay tax for “air”!
But here it is !
The radical 68’s are really radical?
David
March 22, 2010 9:34 am
Is this the makings of CDOs all over again?
PaulH
March 22, 2010 1:54 pm
Updated March 21, 2010:
“Hunt for ‘rogue trader’ over recycled carbon credits” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7069741.ece
“A TINY London trading firm is at the centre of a shadowy chain of international deals involving the carbon market’s first “rogue trader”.
A mystery investor made a £1.8m profit last week by selling invalid carbon permits to unwitting buyers in Europe — which caused a temporary trading freeze at two of the main carbon trading exchanges.”
A rogue trader? Maybe it’s a real market after all. ;->
Paul
Mike M
March 23, 2010 7:48 am
Paging Michael Milken….
chaos rains
March 25, 2010 10:16 pm
Not a titter. Wise nods of approval on Deltoid. These crazies are true believers.
You have remarkable powers of observation to be able to discern their nods. And you’re absolutely right that failure to laugh (again I commend your detection skills) is damning.
Do you think they would deliver? At the current price, it’s an absolute bargain compared with what some poor people are having to pay.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lounge/26787-co2-refill-cost.html
It appears to me that the carbon traders have left their noncarbon footprints as result stepping of something more familiar and tangible that was deposited by a low-belching cow at the carbon trading post. They missed a real market opportunity that I can buy at Lowes for $1.45 a bag.
Allow me to shed a tear or two for Goldman Sachs and their ilk. So their latest scheme for global robbery isn’t working out as planned – cry me a river. Somebody should have pointed out that you can only steal so much before there is nothing much left of value. An individual with nothing left to loose is a dangerous animal indeed.
Thieves all. May the national razor see them to their end as it has seen all their predecessors to theirs. Play with fire an’ all that.
Come on boys and girls – when some thug is taking the food from your mouth it really is time to fight back or starve. Make a choice.
DOA is the proper term for the carbon footprint for those coming down from the tallest banana tree in the jungle.
LarryD (08:40:05) :
“Supposedly, the average carbon burden of us Westerners is 20 t/year,
so the answer is: 50 years.”
How is this calculated LD? Anyone have a good website for accurately determining this? I don’t know about you, but this could be considered a “fuzzy” average.
The problem was perceived as how to pay for the alternative energy technology? So demon CO2 was fingered and a “credits” market invented. Trouble is, as Anthony and others point out, there is no commodity. You can’t sell CO2 if the trading scheme fails. And it has failed.
If government had its wits about it, it would belt tighten to pay for new tech. Why rely on new taxes – why not re-allocate current tax revenue and cut spending? Or is that too much government sacrifice?
I never belived that I would have to pay tax for “air”!
But here it is !
The radical 68’s are really radical?
Is this the makings of CDOs all over again?
Updated March 21, 2010:
“Hunt for ‘rogue trader’ over recycled carbon credits”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7069741.ece
“A TINY London trading firm is at the centre of a shadowy chain of international deals involving the carbon market’s first “rogue trader”.
A mystery investor made a £1.8m profit last week by selling invalid carbon permits to unwitting buyers in Europe — which caused a temporary trading freeze at two of the main carbon trading exchanges.”
A rogue trader? Maybe it’s a real market after all. ;->
Paul
Paging Michael Milken….
Not a titter. Wise nods of approval on Deltoid. These crazies are true believers.
You have remarkable powers of observation to be able to discern their nods. And you’re absolutely right that failure to laugh (again I commend your detection skills) is damning.