Thursday, November 15, 2007

RUSSIA: In Russia, Pollution Is Good for Business

The article's a couple years old but the principle's the same and the interest is greater.
From the New York Times via CorpWatch:

By its own admission, Russia's* electricity monopoly is the world's largest corporate producer of greenhouse gases, accounting - by itself - for nearly as much carbon dioxide as is emitted by Britain.

From smokestacks across Russia's 11 time zones, the company, Unified Energy Systems, spews out 2 percent of all human-generated carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere.

What will the utility get for being the world's largest greenhouse gas polluter? It is hoping for $1 billion.

It is one of the paradoxes of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change that companies in Russia and other Eastern European countries, which are among the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases, are poised to earn hundreds of millions of dollars through trading their rights to release carbon dioxide into the air....MORE

Speaking of emitters, the WSJ's Energy Roundup has this (lazy, I know, just copy the post complete with artwork):

We’re No. 1 (For Now)!

reader

Here’s a quick roundup of energy news from some other publications:

A new database* of the world’s power-plant emissions shows the U.S. to be the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide — but the developing world, especially China, is catching up fast, the Washington Post reports.

*The WaPo didn't include a link to the database.
Yr. Hmbl. Svt. is pleased to deliver it, here.