Criminal Carbon Trading Schemes Escalate

“Carbon trading is now the fastest growing commodities market on earth. Since Kyoto signatories bought in to the cap and trade concept in 2005, there have been more than $300 billion worth of carbon transactions, prompting several investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Barclays, to set up their own carbon trading desks,’ reports Mark Schapiro. He adds, “In this highly specialized new industry, perhaps a thousand people really understand how onsite measurement of CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) projects work, and there is a serious potential for conflicts of interest.” (1)

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Some of this helps explain why carbon trading continues to be exploited in increasing fashion by criminal activity. The Austrian online Kleine Zeituung reports that Europol agents have raided an elaborate CO2 emissions scam in Italy and arrested more than 100 persons. (2) This topic was initially covered on this page on December 17, asking the question why-are carbon trading issues that have gone awry ignored by the media? The main press still isn’t very concerned about this issue even though it continues to escalate. In the latest operation on December 17, Milan’s prosecution office carried out raids on about 150 companies in eight different regions of Italy. These operations happened just a few weeks after the Italian Power Exchange halted all trading in carbon credits due to a high number of abnormal transactions. The potential VAT loss is estimated to reach 500 million Euros. Earlier this year authorities in France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries, conducted numerous operations against criminal networks involved in carbon credit fraud. The largest of these was initiated in Germany in late April involving more than 2500 officers across Europe and in non-EU countries. (3) Japan has decided to back out of carbon trading, likely from intense pressure from industry. Pierre Gosselin observes, “This will no doubt disappoint many in organized crime. Turns out the Japanese have determined that it’s not very market economy-friendly after all.” (4) References

1. Mark Schapiro, “Conning the Climate,” Harper’s, February 2010, Page 31
2. “Europol” 100 arrests for fraud issue,” Kleine Zeitung, December 28, 2010
3. P. Gosselin, “Europol arrests more than 100 in carbon trading fraud,” notrickszone.com, December 28, 2010
4. “The Japan That Says No; Rejects Carbon Trading-Major Setback,” notrickszone.com, December 30, 2010

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