As previously noted, the concept of carbon trading is controversial. “The huge blocks of tradable emissions rights handed out to polluters allow them to profit from business as usual. OTOH (On the Other Hand) proponents of carbon trading argue that something must be done to dampen the surge in global carbon emissions while still making a dollar, yen, ruble, etc.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard is backing a scheme placing a price on carbon emissions. But, reports Reuters (2007-May-21), Washington and Beijing have yet to show any interest in an international emissions trading scheme. “The prospects of setting up an emissions trading scheme in the short term are not very bright.”
Australia, like close ally the United States, refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol setting caps on greenhouse gas emissions, and has called for a global scheme to replace “Old Kyoto”. But with his conservative government facing a tough re-election battle late in the year, and polls showing most Australians want more action to combat global warming, Howard* is under pressure to change climate course and reverse months of sliding popularity.
* a.k.a., “The Rodent“, who has always refused to sign up to Kyoto, arguing it would unfairly harm Australia’s energy-export reliant economy, while forcing no concurrent emission reductions from developing countries such as China and India.
Australia hopes to build gradual support for an emissions trading scheme from Australia, China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and India. Environmentalists call them the “pack of polluters”. Still the rhetoric for the APEC summit would be to endorse climate change initiatives. The Reuters story reports that Howard prefers “practical measures to fight climate change, notably clean coal and solar technology.”
Because of vast coal deposits, “clean coal technology is of particular interest to China and the United States.
As previously noted, most of the carbon credits now being sold to industrialized countries come from polluting projects that do nothing to wean the world off fossil fuels. Such caveats apply to the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. The Reuters story notes that APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), and specifically China, Russia, the United States and Japan, are responsible for 60 per cent of global energy consumption.
