In a starling revelation, an investigation comes up with the finding that millions may have been spent on the ‘Carbon Credit’ projects but the schemes are yielding almost next to nothing!
The Financial Times investigation claims that the project has come a cropper and some organizations are paying for emission reductions that simply does not happen!
It also accused that some organizations are also making huge profit out of carbon trading by making the consumer pay to clean up its own pollution.
According to the investigation, the ‘green gold rush’ has resulted in organizations buying credits that failed to cut down on carbon reduction.
Francis Sullivan, an environment adviser at HSBC, which went carbon-neutral in 2005, said he had ‘serious credibility concerns’ in the offsetting market.
Sullivan said,
The police, the fraud squad and trading standards need to be looking into this. Otherwise people will lose faith in it.
The report also accuses companies like DuPont of indulging into malpractice. The Kentucky plant of the chemical major yields HFC-23, a potent greenhouse gas and now they are seeking $4 from customers to eliminate a tonne of CO2 from the plant even though the equipment needed to reduce the gas is relatively cheap. DuPont, however, refused to entertain any query on the issue.
The FT report would jolt many out of complacence who thought the carbon credit policy would be the panacea to all the greenhouse ills plaguing the industry.
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