Posted by
Average Voter on Sunday, November 08, 2009 8:30:27 PM
Plans to expand carbon markets at UN climate talks this December could trigger a second ’sub-prime’ style financial collapse and fail to protect the world from a global warming catastrophe, according to a report from Friends of the Earth.
The trade in carbon permits and credits, primarily based in Europe, was worth $126 billion in 2008 and is predicted to reach $3.1 trillion by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off, according to Friends of the Earth.
However, the majority of the trade is not between polluting industries and factories covered by carbon trading schemes, but by banks and investors who profit from speculation on the carbon markets by packaging carbon credits into increasingly complex financial products similar to sub-prime mortgages, which triggered the recent economic crash, according to the researchers.
As I have noted before in this blog, somebody is going to get rich on the cap and trade B.S. and it for sure will not be you or me. And what will it do for emissions? Litlle or nothing. This
current global recession is doing more for global emissions than any cap and trade program ever would.