Fran O'Sullivan: Adventures in carbon trade

5:00AM Wednesday September 26, 2007
By Fran O'Sullivan

The Government's short-sighted decision to scuttle the Serious Fraud Office comes at a time when other countries are facing up to the new era of climate change fraud.

Let's put to rest here (quickly) the notion that this column will attack the basic science of global warming as a crock.

There's nothing to be gained from reopening that debate.

But there is good reason to question, based on the experience of the European countries that have already launched their own market, whether the proposed NZ emissions trading regime will perform to heightened expectations.

UK-based investigations into carbon trading have shown the new international market is a valuable hunting ground for new generation white-collar crooks, tax dodge specialists and ruthless companies which buy dubious offsets in Third World countries to assuage their corporate consciences without doing anything significant to reduce their own emissions level.

Energy Minister David Parker and his team have come down in favour of a cap and trade mechanism to curb the exponential growth in greenhouse gas emissions which New Zealand will adopt once legislation is passed.

The documents underlying the Government's announcement are illuminating. Greenhouse emissions are growing (NZ is now producing 25 per cent more than in 1990); per capita comparisons show New Zealanders produce nearly twice as many emissions as British people and five times as many as Chinese .

The energy sector has shown growth of 43 per cent; but, the real issue is the fact that agriculture emissions: methane and nitrous oxide are expected to grow to over 70 per cent above 1990 levels by 2012.

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