Carbon Trading: Attacking Warming with a New Tool, or Just a Shell Game?

[IDemo]

-- Cross posting here to get some commentary going:

The concept of 'carbon trading' has sounded questionable to me since I first heard of it, but I have seen it cropping up more often lately in environmental news, so I decided to look into it a bit further.

What, exactly, is "Carbon Trading"? Think pork bellies. Green ones.

"In essence, emissions trading takes advantage of the capitalist system, by treating carbon dioxide as a commodity. By creating a demand for carbon dioxide reduction, and measuring the supply of carbon dioxide, a price is established. Since businesses react to changes in cost inputs, one would expect that the behaviour of the people that manage the business will be modified to minimize any costs, and therefore their CO2 emissions."

Emissions trading uses the principle that the atmosphere is a global commons, and it doesn't matter where the emissions reduction occurs, as long as it occurs.

Emissions trading creates a financial value for reducing emissions, which acts as an incentive and can be used to fund carbon abatement projects (tree planting, for example).

No surprise here; countries and companies may not feel motivated to lower their greenhouse gas output unless a profit motive exists. Personal carbon trading has been proposed as well in the UK. Here, individuals would be given credits which would be spent with each energy purchase. Those who use less energy than average would receive cash back, while those using more would essentially be taxed for the difference by having to buy more credits.

Personal carbon trading may not sound like an effective way to reduce a global carbon problem, but may in fact prove very useful in the long run. Each individual produces, on average, about five tons of carbon yearly. In fact, an argument has been made that the passenger should be the holder of credits that the EU will soon make available to airlines.

Two questions remain: Can carbon trading actually make any measurable difference in global CO2 levels, and will nations/corporations/citizens be sufficiently motivated to invest?

Actually, a third question might be: how can the US be expected to participate in the global carbon market after refusing to sign on to Kyoto, the planet-wide handshake of agreement that carbon dioxide actually needs to be reduced in the first place?

==>> Calculate your personal carbon footprint here

[leftofthedial]

1. capitalist sham

[Deja Q]

3. And not in a good way.

:)

[Deja Q]

2. Time will tell...

Your estimated CO2 emissions are
15.47 tons per year
You can help to offset your impact
by planting 12 trees
Cost of native trees: $61.88
Administrative Fee: $5.00
Total: $66.88

Couldn't I buy some seeds and a shovel instead? Not only is that cheaper, the shoveling of dirt would be upper body strength building.

[IDemo]

4. Does the calculator assume I'm using coal fired power?

I'm curious where the 'tonnage' figure comes from. We are in a primarily hydro-powered area, have no central air conditioning, and put very few miles on the vehicles yearly.

[EVDebs]

5. It still allows 'dirty dinosaurs' to pollute and is a further example

of the movie The Corporation's thesis that corporate 'persons' are psychotic and pathological.