Page 96 - Carbon Frauds and Corruption

Corruption of Bribery

Chapter 6 : Corruption in the “Carbon World”

A Gibraltarian brokerage company that has established its own offset verification system and exchange
advertises that it will pay commissions of up to 45% for any agent that introduces investors. It also claims

"the master account will soon be under the management of an FSA regulated body who will act as
custodians for the client accounts". This is a slight over egging of the truth because the FSA regulation
extends only because the company running the register is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

A green investment scam operating from a Spanish boiler room but with calls routed through a dummy telephone
exchange in Canary Wharf London handed out Rolex watches to intermediaries to bring in gullible investors.

Scamming methods are virtually unlimited so the old rules apply: “buyer beware” and “if it looks
too good to be true, it is”.

17 LAND USE, LAND USE CHANGE AND FORESTRY
The IPCCC and UNFCCC, not to mention political leaders, seem unable or unwilling to grasp the
nettle of LULUCF, possibly because it is a problem that can only be solved in Less Developed
Countries which, as we know, should never be inconvenienced.

LULUCF is defined by the UNFCCC as:

"a greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals resulting from direct human induced land
use, land use change and forestry activities. It has impact on the global carbon cycle in removing carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere”

So far, LULCF has not been encouraged for CDM support but that position is likely to change and
there are already thousands of projects in the voluntary sector that are difficult to measure and
often have nasty side effects:

A Dutch company called GreenSeat buys offsets from a foundation that plants trees in Uganda's Mount Elgon
National Park. The park encroached on land traditionally used by local farmers who protested. In the ensuing
fracas villagers living along the boundary of the park were beaten and shot and their livestock confiscated by
armed rangers. Between January and July 2009 three national forestry staff members were allegedly murdered
by people who had been evicted from their homes. In another case, a man, a pregnant woman and their three‐
year‐old son were burnt to death for opposing a development, which had been extolled by its European CSR
investors as a “model of cooperation”. So much for CSR and due diligence!

18 GREEN TECHNOLOGY AND COMMERCIAL ESPIONAGE
Companies and governments around the world are spending an estimated $70 ‐ $155 billion over
the next five years to develop new, mainly renewable, sources of energy including solar panels,
bio‐fuels, wind turbines, nuclear power, ocean based systems, batteries, carbon capture and
sinks. The competition for the “eureka discovery” is naturally high, with a rush to patent
technology and to be first to market. The position is similar to Silicon Valley some years ago and
there is a serious risk of espionage and other illegal behaviour, possibly at a government level.

Development of electric vehicles is one of the Holy Grails of the automotive industry. It therefore came as no great
surprise that a $4 billion investment in electronic technology by Renault and Nissan attracted the attention of
competitors.

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