Page 81 - Carbon Frauds and Corruption

Corruption of Bribery

Chapter 6 : Corruption in the “Carbon World”

9.4 Calculations Abatement Efficiency
There can also be a problem over the way in which emissions and emission savings are calculated.
Just check for yourself on the vast numbers of Internet sites that calculate carbon footprints. You
will find a massive disparity. Some suggest that for every giga watt hour (GWh) of electricity
used, 300 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be emitted: others say 540 tonnes and one cheerful soul
says 900 tonnes. There is a big difference.

Some Internet sites, having calculated what a dreadful emitter you are, will offer to sell you
offsets.

One site calculated a colleague's emissions at 336.65 tonnes per annum and suggested that if he were to buy ‐
from them of course ‐ 337 eucalyptus trees in Abyssinia for £1,700 everything would be okay. This was a
hopelessly ineffective remedy because these spindly water sucking weeds sequester only 50 pounds (or 0.026
tonnes) of carbon dioxide each per annum. Thus it would take a forest of 14,000 trees – planted every year‐ to
indulge his transgressions. There is a big difference.

In 1997, the Bolivian government signed an agreement with American Electric Power, BP Amoco, and PacifiCorp
to buy offsets generated through the protection of around 650,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of rainforest for 30
years. Greenpeace found that between 1997 and 2004 the three companies reported carbon offset of about 7.4
million tonnes to the US Department of Energy. This was considerably more than the total amount of 5.8 million
tonnes validated for project’s entire duration.

10 NATIONAL REGISTRIES & INTERNATIONAL LOGS
Ultimately, the integrity of the “Carbon World” depends upon the multiple registries of
greenhouse gas inventories and credits, their accuracy and security. But like any equivalent
banking or commercial electronic book entry system, they are exposed to internal manipulation
and external attacks by “hacking” or “phishing”. Cases of fraud and failure were discussed earlier
in this Chapter and it is unlikely that all weaknesses have been eliminated or that enforcement
has improved.

On Wednesday 19th January 2011 the Emissions Trading System was forced to shut down for 7 days after staff in
the Czech Carbon Registry (OTE) had evacuated their Prague offices in response to a bomb threat. While
trembling staff waited for five hours in the cold for the emergency to clear, the unsupervised registry was hacked
and Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) valued at an estimated $37million stolen by changing account details
and entering unauthorised trades in brokerage accounts. These were then electronically transferred through
dummy accounts in Polish, German and Liechtenstein registries before disappearing.

Every Annex 1 signatory to the Kyoto protocol is required to maintain a “Registry” of allocations
to LCPs and to account annually for emissions. In addition most registries allow “personal holding
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accounts” for investors. There are 28 National Registries in Europe . They are linked

91 The UK Registry is operated by the Environment Agency

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