(October 12, 2010) The New York Times’ Patricia Brett looks at the many criticisms directed at the corruption- and fraud-prone carbon market.
Cement companies in line for €226m windfall after sale of surplus carbon credits
(October 12, 2010) The Irish Times’ Franck McDonald reports that cement companies in Ireland are now able to cash in hundreds of millions of Euros of excess carbon credits after the collapse of the country’s construction industry.
Murder on the Carbon Express: Interpol Takes On Emissions Fraud
(October 8, 2010) Mark Schapiro, from the Center for Investigative Reporting, writes about the increasing complexity of policing the emerging carbon market.
Conflicts of interest threaten carbon-trading mechanism
(October 1, 2010) In one of the UN’s most important schemes for tackling climate change, auditing companies may have too many temptations to misbehave thanks to conflicts of interest reminiscent of the financial crash, writes Chelsea Wald for Deutsche Welle.
ArcelorMittal Corus Salzgitter US Steel and SSAB top firms in EU profiting most from carbon credit
(September 22, 2010) A host of energy and industrial companies in Europe are enjoying massive windfall profits after receiving excess carbon credits, writes Steel Guru.
Oil palm plantations on peatlands won’t get carbon credits under CDM
(September 19, 2010) Plantations on peatlands will no longer be supported by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a framework for industrialized countries to reduce their emissions via projects in developing countries, reports Wetlands International.
China’s dam spree continues
(August 24, 2010) The Chinese government is forging ahead with its ambitious and controversial plans for development on its rivers, writes Brady Yauch.
Subsidizing monoculture plantations: Indonesia officials want palm oil farms to receive carbon credits
(August 20, 2010) Brady Yauch writes that Indonesian officials hope to use the country’s rich rainforests to cash in on the global carbon market.
Devil is in the (lack of) details: citizens left in the dark on carbon credit schemes
(July 30, 2010) Brady Yauch writes that citizens in the developing world are often not provided with details surrounding carbon-reduction projects.
Paying the polluters: The carbon credit way
(July 6, 2010) Brady Yauch writes that, far from failing to prevent carbon emissions, new allegations say the U.N’s carbon credit scheme is actually paying polluters to increase their polluting ways.
Scamming the carbon markets in ten easy steps
(July 2, 2010) Michelle Chan at the environmental group Friends of the Earth offers a quick and easy way to scam carbon markets.
Carbon credit fraud makes its way to Liberia
(June 23, 2010) A British company is alleged to have bribed Liberian officials in a carbon credit deal, writes Brady Yauch.
Set for failure: As money for carbon-reducing forestry programs increases, so too does fraud and corruption
(June 10, 2010) As rich countries continue with plans to pour money into forestry programs in the developing world as a way to combat climate change they should heed warnings that the programs will fail to reduce carbon emissions, strip local citizens of their ownership rights, and be ridden with fraud and corruption.
Power taken from the people: UN carbon scheme threatens to ‘recentralize’ forest governance, spelling doom for forest ecologies
(May 18, 2010) A carbon emissions program created by the United Nations and financed by the UN and development institutions may strip forest use and management from citizens in the developing world, writes Brady Yauch.
Hot wind in the desert
(May 13, 2010) The Chinese county of Guazhou, in north-western China, is famous for its honey melons. But it also produces wind. It blows in from the east through the high, narrow valley formed by the Qilian and Beishan mountains, on the southern edge of the Gansu Corridor.