Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Crime and climate change

A global anti-corruption coalition Transparency International has published a ‘Global Corruption Report: Climate Change’. “Where huge amounts of money flow through new and untested financial markets and mechanisms, there is always a risk of corruption,” it said.

Indeed! Look at how the EU had to shut down its carbon market, when it found that VAT fraud on carbon trading had cost it €5 billion. When you try to trade in something as ubiquitous as carbon, you face real problems - which is why the Kyoto Protocol has been such a dismal failure. It has cost billions, and achieved nothing.

I think there has to be a lesson in there somewhere.

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