Europe’s Dirty Secret (PDF);
The EU emissions trading scheme (ETS), the region’s main policy tool to
combat climate change, is not working and should be reconsidered due to its high operating costs and poor results of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, a UK-based think tank said on Thursday.
“The EU ETS is costing a lot, but it isn’t working,” Hugo Robinson, an analyst with Open Europe, said in a statement released together with a new study, Europe’s Dirty Secret: Why the EU Emissions Trading Scheme isn’t working.
Open Europe, an independent think tank set up by UK business leaders, reckons the 27-member bloc needs to embrace radical reforms based on economic liberalization, with greater transparency and more accountability.
The cap-and-trade market for carbon dioxide emissions was launched in 2005, covering about 12,000 installations from emissions-intensive industries, such as energy, steel and glass.
The market’s first trading period, from 2005 through 2007, has seen the benchmark carbon contract for delivery in December 2007 drop below €0.10 – due to too many emissions permits handed out to installations participating in the scheme.
EU officials have insisted the first trading period has been a test phase, while the EU commission has tightened its allowance policy for the 2008-2012 second trading period. Officials are currently reviewing how to improve the market going forward.
“Everybody knows that phase one was a learning period with teething problems,” a spokeswoman at the EU commission told Point Carbon. “We have full confidence in the second phase and we are preparing the review of the system (for the third phase) to iron out existing problems,” she said, adding that the Open Europe report appeared to be “politically motivated.”
Still, Open Europe sees new problems ahead, while some problems have not been resolved.
“New problems are emerging in the second phase. Member states have opted to buy in vast numbers of what are essentially carbon offsets from developing countries, rather than make real reductions in emissions. But the offsets are often not reducing emissions, or are even subsidising polluters,” he said.
“This approach does nothing for our energy security and it doesn’t appear to be doing much good for the environment. It has also become clear that some member states are clearly using the complexity of the system to provide covert industrial subsidies to polluting industries,” Robinson said.
[A] ground-breaking study has now called into question the effectiveness of using trees to “offset” emissions, suggesting that their ability to “lock-up” carbon dioxide has been greatly exaggerated.
Forests have long been seen as an effective way of absorbing the greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, which are thought to trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming.
Celebrities, including the Rolling Stones and Leonardo DiCaprio, the film actor, have signed up to schemes to plant trees to offset their own emissions.
However, the new research found that trees bathed in extra carbon dioxide grew more tissue, but did not necessarily store significant extra quantities of carbon. Instead, the tree’s capacity to absorb the gas depended on water and nutrient levels.
The news will come as a blow to the carbon-offsetting industry, which has expanded rapidly as individuals and companies try to atone for their carbon dioxide emissions by paying companies to plant trees for them.
[…]
But Ru Hartwell, the director of Treeflights, an offsetting company planting trees in Wales and Peru, said: “There are problems with tree planting but it is only one way in which we are going to get on top of the problems of global warming. I have complete faith that tree planting is positive and we should not just chuck away our spades and do nothing.”
I’ve a better idea. Let’s just ban rock concerts, speaking tours, and movies and move the Madonnas, Gores and DiCaprios of the planet into 800 sq.ft. bungalows.
“Everybody knows that phase one was a learning period with teething problems,” a spokeswoman at the EU commission told Point Carbon. “We have full confidence in the second phase and we are preparing the review of the system (for the third phase) to iron out existing problems,”
Phase 1-tax them
Phase 2-tax them some more
Phase 3-tax them out of existence
I can see buying gold shares, or oil shares, or even shares in a business like Dell, but hot air? Glad to see that it is being exposed as the scam it really is, hope Gore has all his marbles in this basket, as it’s going down like a certain ship!
Our premiers were no better, wanting Alberta to join in a carbon trading market, so they could suck more than the 11B per year from Albertans. Let’s see if a market gets set up without Alberta, if it’s such a great idea, it should happen, with or without Alberta. If it’s just a money sucking scheme, the other provinces will not get together and start one, they can’t afford it, only Alberta can.
What I really want to know is when did the Goreacle,Dr FruitFly,etal, invent time travel? I mean,they have the thinking-challenged leftoids convinced that by spending their bucks on carbon offset credits,they are helping the problem. Would one of them care to explain to me,with facts,how paying for something all ready produced,eliminates it? A**dam? Ted? liberia? Jose? I’m eagerly await your facts.
I just don’t understand how people can be so stupid but they are, just watch the thousands of Sunday morning followers being healed or old footage of Hitler and Mussolini manipulating the masses. I guess the dumb will be dumb forever and every generation has its legions of simple-minded followers. There must be a god for so many that are so stupid to live as long as they do.
Speaking of concert performers…
While Big AL was centre stage at the Live Earth fiasco, his son was busted for driving impaired at 100 mph in his toyota Prius (aka “Pious”). It’s bad enough that AL doesn’t play the role of a caring father and cancel his appearance to tend to the needs of his son (as Dennis Miller pointed out recently on his talk radio show) but (as DM noted a couple of days ago), when his son is released from the detox centre, his daughter picks him up in her MASERATI. I pretty sure it is safe to assume that the type of Maser she was driving would be this one – 3w.caranddriver.com/previews/8783/maserati-gransport.html – a 394 hp coupe that gets… 8 mpg (euro city cycle) or 9.6 miles per imperial gallon.
Is it any wonder that he lost the bid for president with this kind blindness to at least the optics of such things?
Ru Hartwell… ” I have complete faith that tree planting is positive….”
Operative words: “I have complete faith”.
It’s hard to see the Al truth when your income depends on Gore not seeing it.
Kate:
800 square feet? With their egos they need something along the lines of the Skydome.
Well at least the euroweenies had the decency to call it a scheme. It’s right there for those who possess a keen sense of the obvious.
Syncro
the price of Co2 on the EU ETS is carefully calculated using AlGoreIthms.
The same ones they use to propel their climate models.
Gee, the Euro Union carbon trading sca.. I mean scheme didn’t do what it was supposed to do?
Au contraire my friends. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. It made some insiders a buttload of money, let some governments pay off some friends with tax funds, and best of all it fooled a large number of gullible idiots that “Something Is Being Done About The Environment!”
Job done! Let’s have a beer!
The logic behind carbon credits is like paying someone else to diet for you because it is too inconvienient to do it yourself. This fad of environmentalism will eventually land on the trash heap of history.
What? Another Leftist hair-brained scheme didn’t work as they said it would.
Lt always looks good in theory, but then that old reality thingy rears it’s ugly head.
Ever heard of oilpalm biodeisel?
It’s the saviour of the EU – as long as they ignore the consequences for the people who are living in the countries being turned into oilpalm-plantions (Cote-D’Ivoire, Indonesia)
“…This is a huge amount of land. Indigenous peoples are already suffering the negative impacts of oil palm plantations at their current extent. Apart from destroying socio-cultural values, oil palm plantation projects have been associated with gambling and prostitution. Indigenous people have reported that living costs are higher than before palm oil plantations are developed, when they farmed rice and other crops and/or tapped rubber. If 1.41 million hectares of land is needed just for the biodiesel supply, it is worth considering how much more indigenous-owned land will be seized and how much more suffering will result. All so that Indonesia can develop monocultures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by industrialised countries and meet their fuel needs.
Currently, the six million plus hectares of land taken up by oil palm plantations in Indonesia, supply the domestic and international market for household products such as soap, toothpaste, margarine and cooking oil.
If the requirements of biodiesel are added on top of this, it is likely that there will not be any tropical forests left in Indonesia in a few years’ time outside national parks and other protected areas. Indigenous and/or local communities whose lives depend on the forests will be destroyed because their forests will be planted with monocultures to supply the renewable energy industry.
The question now is: which is more important for humankind – to sustain life and grow food or biodiesel?”
(http://dte.gn.apc.org/69oi1.htm)
While viewing the posts on this site I wonder, what is your point?
-Activists are to some extent hypocritical?
-Currently proposed/enacted solutions are ineffective?
-The planet is not warming?
-Human activity is not the cause of global warming?
It would seem you have an agenda more than any point.
Joebaloni
Three out of four ain’t bad.
Syncro
p.s. Reality…yes…Agenda…not so much….well other than pointing out reality.
I don’t suppose to speak for Kate and this is just my interpretation of the information presented.
Syncro
You too can now own carbon offsets, just like the rich guys, and pollute like Al Gore.
http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com
Was going to respond to joe b**ls**t,but then rememberer Phantom’s words. Thanks Phantom. Saved me wasting some time!
All lieberals can now calm down, I have located the damn thermostat for the sun, it was in Suzukis outhouse on Quadra island around back of his 4 million dollar house, just mere miles from his 3.5 million dollar house in Van. and nobody knew, whew! just in a nick of time I got it turned down, seems the Suzuker just forgot he owned it, thank god I found it before it was to late for these moronic Lieberals because they were all at scot brisons wedding, could have been worse than algory and dickcaprio ever imagined if I had not donned my cape and gone to work.
I see that some enviromentalists wackos in europe are climbing naked up on a glacer to call attention to this GLOBAL WARMING poppycock i mean their getting as rediclous as PETA in their stupid protests and proves only a complete idiot joins these eco-wacko groups
Be a shame if they all got their little hineys frost bit, eh?
Thanks Justthinkin, I felt the urge to do the same but restrained myself. Still trying to be good, the best I can summon for these sorry trolls is to ignore them.
Kinda like quitting smoking though, sometimes I really crave a good troll smackdown….
Part of the Kyoto crowd’s alarmism is that we have to smarten-up anyways, as the earth is running out of oil —- Peak Oil n’ all that.
I am no Geologist but maybe there is a reason for Europe’s hot air value collapse.
[Dr. Gold strongly believes that oil is a “renewable, primordial soup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is attached by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs.”]
What do you geologists out there think ??
[About 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana lies a mostly submerged mountain, the top of which is known as Eugene Island. The portion underwater is an eerie-looking, sloping tower jutting up from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, with deep fissures and perpendicular faults which spontaneously spew natural gas. A significant reservoir of crude oil was discovered nearby in the late ’60s, and by 1970, a platform named Eugene 330 was busily producing about 15,000 barrels a day of high-quality crude oil.
By the late ’80s, the platform’s production had slipped to less than 4,000 barrels per day, and was considered pumped out. Done. Suddenly, in 1990, production soared back to 15,000 barrels a day, and the reserves which had been estimated at 60 million barrels in the ’70s, were recalculated at 400 million barrels. Interestingly, the measured geological age of the new oil was quantifiably different than the oil pumped in the ’70s.
Analysis of seismic recordings revealed the presence of a “deep fault” at the base of the Eugene Island reservoir which was gushing up a river of oil from some deeper and previously unknown source.
Similar results were seen at other Gulf of Mexico oil wells. Similar results were found in the Cook Inlet oil fields in Alaska. Similar results were found in oil fields in Uzbekistan. Similarly in the Middle East, where oil exploration and extraction have been underway for at least the last 20 years, known reserves have doubled. Currently there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 680 billion barrels of Middle East reserve oil.
Creating that much oil would take a big pile of dead dinosaurs and fermenting prehistoric plants. Could there be another source for crude oil?]
What if the oil companys knew this all along ?? Ah, like, are they just playing along with the peak-oil fearmonger enviro fanatics thing ?? Knowing there is a hell of a lot more petroleum down there. At high “scarce” prices !!??
[“There has not been any ‘debate’ about the origin of hydrocarbons for over a century,” he stated. “Competent physicists, chemists, chemical engineers and men knowledgeable of thermodynamics have known that natural petroleum does not evolve from biological material since the last quarter of the 19th century.”]
SELL THE HOT AIR SHARES !!
http://uplink.space.com/printthread.php?Cat=&Board=tech&main=479514&type=post
good post ron, finally seeing some headway in this turdopian canaduh! Have any idiotic liberals that light their hair on fire predicting the end of the world ever thought deeper than their Givenchy dog dishes. Here is a good qustion for those stupid enough to believe that oil comes from dinosaurs, how come dinosaurs are barley under the surface of the earth and oil is anywhere from 3ooo to 20,000 feet down, I know of places where natural gas is seeping out in water sources but the lieberals want you to believe it all came from dinosaurs buried deep in the ground, tell that to a Dakota rancher or an Albertan from Drumheller.
Concerning Palm-Oil,
The problem we have is that we think we know better than Indonesia (or Brazil for that matter) and that they are too stupid to manage their own natural resources and better the lives of their own people.
I’ve been to Indonesia and it is good to see overall how they are improving the lives of their people – it’s not always perfect – but they are improving dramatically the 4th biggest population in the world.
(It’s also very interesting how fast malaria and disease disappears on the islands with industry and/or tourism.)
In good ol’ europe I wonder where all that precious farmland came from – it must have just always been there.
I have an idea to get the leftoids to reject carbon trading.
Lets start talking about a VRWC that Haliburton is set to buy up all the carbon shares to drive up the value, and then sell off when they hit their peak price, then at that moment that evil ol Cheney will dump the shares causing the carbon market to crash globally.
Take any issue insert the words Cheney and VRWC and the left will vilify it overnight.
Gore wouldn’t fit in an 800 square foot bungalow. You’d have to add a suite for his fat arse and another for his swollen head.
Only the morbidly naive are shocked when these Kyoto “trading” systems yield no effect and enrich only a few (insider) players.
The Green cult has done more to empower and enrich global shyster corporatism and malignant political ambitions than any cult phenomena past.
It’s like the globalists play them like lab rats every time they want some new control and profit scheme and the greenie lab rats have been conditioned to give the proper response every time you scare them.
Climate science is about money and political power and 2% science.
Outside today its 12 degrees C in the middle of summer. This is global “warming”? I think I’ve been scamed.
800 sq ft ? There’s some hay barns down here bigger that that.
I used to live in a trailor that size, at least till we got the land paid off then built a 2800 sq ft brick 2-story, but hey, I respect Mother-Nature and only cut enuf trees to get the house down by the pond. I do in fact have no front or backyard, but, have plenty of spiders, hornets, lizards, hawks, snakes of all kinds, deer, rabbits, squirrels and 1 dead possum.(had to kill the possum seeing as how he whupped 2 of my best coon dogs, I’ll tell ya from experience, a 4 year old pissed-off male possum is one tuff critter)
And, before someone smacks me, the possum would not qualify as a Small Dead Animal.
,
I hope jackie frost had a big time pinching their little noses and hinies