Collapse of the carbon market

The European market for trading carbon has collapsed, which exposes the extremely counter-productive side of carbon trading:

If permits are cheap, and everyone has lots, the green incentive crashes into reverse. As recession slashes output, companies pile up permits they don't need and sell them on. The price falls, and anyone who wants to pollute can afford to do so. The result is a system that does nothing at all for climate change but a lot for the bottom lines of mega-polluters such as the steelmaker Corus: industrial assistance in camouflage.

Even though this blog is no fan of taxes, we strongly endorse a carbon tax as a program more transparent, honest and effective than any carbon trading scheme. See this older post or simply click on the carbon tax label at the bottom of this post.