But Kyoto also allows companies to purchase “offsets,” credits from emissions-reducing projects in developing countries. Such projects, which currently account for as much as a third of total tradable credits, are overseen not by the E.U. but by the United Nations.That would be the UN, that most august and incorruptible organization that has brought you such examples of good governance and oversight such as the Oil-for-food and Sex-for-food scandals. Yup, they're the ones who are going to be overseeing the running of planet Earths' developed industries.
And unlike traditional commodities, which sometimes during the course of their market exchange must be delivered to someone in physical form, the carbon market is based on the lack of delivery of an invisible substance to no one.I would bet this the first time in history that such an audacious snake-oil sales pitch has ever had such a global scope. Re-read that paragraph, let the understanding of the market for pretend goods sink in.
According to a report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the margin of error in measuring emissions from the cement and fertilizer industries can be as high as 10 percent. For the oil, gas, and coal industries, the margin of error is 60 percent; and for some agricultural processes, the margin of error can actually reach 100 percent.+/- 100% ??!?!?! In what field of human achievement is an error rate of +/- 100% remotely acceptable? Hell, even +/- 60% ??? Yet this is the program the UN wants the entire world to sign on to.
Also the article mentions that Goldman Sachs now hosts a carbon trading desk and is intimately involved with the setup of carbon offsets market in the US. That would be the same Goldman Sachs that aided the Greek government in cooking the books that has precipitated the current Euro(€) crisis and the possible collapse of the Greek economy.
Indeed, carbon exists as a commodity only through the decisions of politicians and bureaucrats, who determine both the demand, by setting emissions limits, and the supply, by establishing criteria for offsets.So the entire carbon trading "market" has been invented out of thin air by people who's primary job is to lie, policed by a multinational with a reputation of dodgy accounting on nationwide scales, overseen by the world's most corrupt organisation.
What could possibly go wrong?
