Dissenting Opinion On Carbon Credits

Published: April 6, 2009

Bryan Leyland of New Zealand is an engineer and a commentator on energy and climate change. He was the leader of the International Climate Science Coalition team in Bali, Indonesia. Here are his thoughts on carbon trading:

“I first heard about carbon trading at a conference more than 10 years ago. I got up and said, “If I was the financial adviser to the Mafia, I would advise them to get into carbon trading.” Nothing that has happened since then changes my opinion — rather the reverse…

“To my knowledge, carbon trading is the only commodity trading where it is impossible to establish with reasonable accuracy how much is being bought and sold, where the commodity that is traded is invisible and can perform no useful purpose for the purchaser, and where both parties benefit if the quantities traded have been exaggerated.

“It is, therefore, an open invitation to fraud and that is exactly what is happening all over the world.”

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