Page 92 - Carbon Frauds and Corruption
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Corruption of Bribery
Chapter 6 : Corruption in the “Carbon World”
the difficulty of validating credits back to their creation and detecting duplication or
reactivation in different compliance schemes
the existence of multiple systems involving different forms of transaction and carbon
credit identification
Further, a serious problem arises at the gateways between different systems and reconciling
them.
13.3 Trading Platforms
Anyone can set up an exchange to trade carbon credits and vanilla trading is not regulated by the
113
114
Financial Services Authority or the SEC; those currently in operation are commercial
enterprises often listed on American or UK stock exchanges. The International Emissions Trading
Association (IETA), which has offices in Geneva, Toronto, Brussels, Washington and San
Francisco, is a non‐profit business organisation created in 1999 to establish an international
framework for trading in greenhouse gas emission reductions. In 2011 it had 155 international
companies as members and worked in partnerships with, among others, the World Bank,
Eurelectric, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the California Climate
Action Registry and the San Francisco Carbon Collaborative
115
One of the first exchanges was the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) which President Obama helped directly
fund with nearly $1.1 million in separate grants through a charity called the Joyce Foundation on whose board he
served. An article by Judi McLeod for the Canada Free Press drew attention to the connection between Albert
Arnold Gore, Jr, Maurice Strong and President Obama through CCX in which Gore's investment company,
Generation Investments was the largest shareholder Maurice Strong served on the board. CCX had less than an
impeccable reputation and when, in 2010, it was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. from Climate
Exchange PLC (which also owned ECX) it had around 400 members. Prices on CCX had fallen from $7.40 a ton in
May 2008 ‐when cap and trade legislation was expected ‐ to $0.10 in August 2010
Exchanges profit from membership fees, by providing related services and taking commissions
on transactions. Typically an exchange will involve:
Members: mainly LCPs in the compliance sector or CSR adherents
Providers of credits, aggregators and brokers
Speculators and liquidity providers
117
116
In the past couple of years, exchanges have been consolidated by two leading international
groups
113 Although it does regulate carbon financial derivatives
114 An developments seem to take place on a monthly basis
115 For the voluntary market, State and regional schemes
116 Fluid and rapidly changing
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