Bloomberg.com reports on the cap and trade scam in EU Needs ‘Decisive Action’ After New CO2 Fraud, Barclays Says:
European regulators need to take “decisive action” after a new round of fraud tainted the world’s biggest emissions market, according to the head of carbon trading at Barclays Capital.
Germany’s Federal Environment Agency said Feb. 3 that about 250,000 CO2 allowances with a market value of 3.2 million euros ($4.4 million) were improperly transferred after cyber attacks. The so-called “phishing” incident comes after Europe lost a total of 5 billion euros in revenue for the 18 months ending in December 2009 because of value-added tax fraud in the CO2 market, according to Europol, the law enforcement agency.
“Without consistent and decisive action by the European Union, the world’s flagship carbon market will become mired in fraudulent activity,” Louis Redshaw, managing director at the investment-bank unit of Barclays Plc, said in a phone interview.
The solution is simple (read the article to show how bureaucratic this is all getting). Since governments need revenue, and their are many good reasons beyond the uncertain climate change argument to restrict fossil fuel use, just tax their production, manufacture and use. All this trading is not only an invitation to fraud but is at base a giveaway to the same trading mentality that led to the recent, ongoing financial and economic crisis.
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