Only the EU could turn an environmental scheme into a way for some countries and companies to make money out of a bureaucratic monster, whilst achieving the opposite of the intended outcome.

??Since EU carbon trading was introduced CO2 emissions have INCREASED throughout the EU, whilst they have been falling in the USA, despite that country growing faster. Some countries obtained too many carbon permits, enabling their companies to sell the surplus ones to generate??free gift??cash and profit.

In the meantime?? companies in receipt of carbon permits, issued free of charge, were able to put these new "assets" on their balance sheets. Regulated industries could then put their prices up, because their "capital" had been increased on which they are allowed to make a profit.

The whole thing reads like a parody, but I am afraid this really has happened. Worse still, the UK of course did not receive a generous over allwowance in?? the way some others did, so??UK companies??did not have the same scope to make money out of this absurdity.

The UK’s CO2 emissions went up last year because we generated more power from coal than in previous years. Electricity privatisation remains the only successful CO2 reducing policy this country has followed. The UK will ony hit its Kyoto targets because we privatised electricity, which led to a big switch from coal to gas. When is this government going to do something which cuts CO2 emissions, given that they think it matters so much?

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