It seems that existing cap-and-trade deals associated with carbon dioxide emissions don?t necessarily produce environmental benefits. At least that?s the primary focus of a new Business Week article focusing on China:
[W]herever they have been used, carbon credits have been subject to manipulation. On Dec. 4 the U.N. committee that oversees the international credit trade refused to approve 10 Chinese wind farms, including the Harbin complex. The U.N.’s concern is that the Chinese projects would have been built even without the proceeds from credits.
If that’s correct, the sale of credits would not stimulate production of any additional clean energy. Credit purchasers would receive empty environmental bragging rights, and the Chinese developers would obtain an undeserved windfall. “This is 21st century climate-policy snake oil,” says Michael Dorsey, a professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.
I?m shocked ? shocked! ? to learn that a government mandate might not lead to the results its advocates promise.
