Analysis-Buyer beware, carbon cuts not always real - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

ANALYSIS-Buyer beware, carbon cuts not always real
02 May 2007 15:22:30 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Gerard Wynn

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Companies and individuals who
want to pay others to cut carbon emissions on their behalf
are not always getting real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions,
as a voluntary, unregulated trade in carbon offsets mushrooms.

Groups like Atmosfair, TerraPass, e-BlueHorizons, CO2 Balance,
Climate Care and the Carbon Neutral Company are among a
plethora of conscience-salving offerings for would-be greens,
as growing climate-change awareness prompts people to fund
intermediaries to make emissions cuts for them.

But there is ample potential for confusion: some carbon-offset
brokers do not verify their emissions cuts through a third
party, or else sell cuts that have not happened yet, or sell
offsets not directly linked to emissions cuts at all.

However, standards are now emerging based on a separate
regulated carbon trade under the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto
Protocol.

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