Carbon trading scheme fails to reduce emission; backfires instead

According to a new report, the carbon trading scheme backed by the United Nations in Europe has backfired. The scheme meant to reduce the levels of pollution but the report has found that it has caused additional harm to the environment. The scheme also meant to combat global warming but has resulted in the release of more than half a billion additional tons of greenhouse gases. The Stockholm Environment report was released on Monday and it found significant problems with the efficacy of carbon offsets. The researchers found issues with 75 per cent of the 872 million offsets and also pointed towards the lack of oversight as the main problem.

The researchers also said that the Joint Implementation carbon-trading scheme which was established under the Kyoto protocol may have seriously undermined the global climate action. The faults in Joint implementation (JI) have released 600 million tons of carbon monoxide in the environment. The head of UN’s Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee, Julia Justo Soto, said,” This study focuses on the part of JI that is not subject to international oversight, but is instead left up to administer and ensure integrity.” She also recommended that the enforcement mechanism in the future should be run under a single track with the international oversight.

The carbon-trading markets let companies in certain industrialized countries earn the right to emit greenhouse gases in the environment by funding offsets elsewhere. The idea behind this scheme was that by implementing it the total emissions will remain under the goals set by the European Union, but the plans would only work if the offsets make a significant reduction in the emissions. However, the study found that many of the offsets are not effective in doing their part. As a matter of fact, the report revealed that about 80 per cent of the offsets claimed by polluters in Russia and Ukraine were problematic. This scheme is also brings in profit for some companies as buying the right to pollute with the offsets is often cheaper than maintaining their pollution treatment facilities. It also removes the tension related with their own pollution treating facilities as they do not have to keep an account of them anymore.

Majority of the scientists agree that manmade greenhouse gas emissions are elevating average global temperatures and disrupting weather in dangerous and costly ways. The results include untimely rains, draughts in certain places. The Earth’s temperature has been constantly rising for a few decades and on top of that the sea levels has also risen by half a foot, according to the UN.