Carbon: Under Kyoto, A Hot Commodity

by Daphne Wysham, Special to CorpWatch

February 18th, 2005

As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force this month, carbon is becoming one of the hottest commodities on the international marketplace, with investors predicting that it could soon become one of the largest markets in the world. The Protocol's "flexible" market-based mechanisms allow corporate polluters to evade their emissions reduction obligations at home by buying up and trading carbon emission quotas and credits from other countries, projects or industries.

Critics charge that carbon trading is a smokescreen. At best, it is designed to attain “carbon neutrality”—representing no net growth in emissions for a country or industry, but doing so cheaply. At worst, it may make the warming climate even less stable, while robbing the poor of their rights.

The Carbon Brokers by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch February 18th, 2005

High up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the town of Aspen has been blanketed with 24 inches of snow in the past week. This has meant booming business to a 60-year-old company which sells hotel rooms and ski passes to local attractions like the Hanging Valley Headwall. The Aspen Skiing Company may not always be so blessed. In the not-too-distant future, when climate change starts to take significant effect, warmer winters and less snow could cause the business to go bust. That's why this week Pat O'Donnell, the president of the company, decided to participate in a voluntary scheme to reduce global warming. On Tuesday O'Donell announced that his company would join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and trade greenhouse gas reductions, in a market that offers its members the opportunity to voluntarily commit to reducing their impact on the world's weather.