Tuesday, January 20, 2009

International Carbon Trader Advises Obama: "Trade Carbon Internationally"

Whoa! Didn't see that one coming.
Lord Stern is Vice-chair of IdeaGlobal, parent of IdeaCarbon.
Don't let Goldman Sachs and the rest of the banksters do to our world what they did to theirs.
Tax and 100% rebate.
From Greentech:

Lord Stern to Obama on Crafting Carbon Cap and Trade: Don’t Give In to Pressures

Here the advice to Barack Obama and Congress from Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist, about what not to do in crafting a carbon emissions cap-and-trade program:

“Don’t be pushed too hard by domestic pressure and move as quickly a possible the auctioning of permits. Do allow international trading and buying of credits.”...

...“We should tax things that are bad. We are not paying the price of destruction,” Stern said. “There are $250 billion worth of energy subsidies [worldwide], mostly in hydrocarbon, and we should get rid of all of them.”

Asked whether the United States should choose a carbon tax instead of a carbon cap-and-trade program, Stern said both. He noted that European countries levy heavy gasoline gases, and the EU is trying to tighten its cap-and-trade program and broaden the program’s coverage to include more industries. The current cap-and-trade program covers about 40 percent of EU’s emissions.

Stern said a cap-and-trade program such as the EU’s generates incentives for developing countries to embrace renewable energy generation and other greentech ideas. As part of EU’s program, companies that need to buy emissions permits can buy from those who have built solar or wind energy projects in the developing world and garnered credits that can be sold to make a profit....MORE

The problem with buying Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon credits from developing nations is not the documented, multi-billion dollar CDM frauds, it is the fact that using the so-called cheaper alternative to meet a cap means that American ratepayers will be building infrastructure in China and then, as caps ratchet down, have to build infrastructure all over again in the U.S.

Oh, then there's the fact that hiring carbon traders as mercenary tax collectors means that up to 20% of the cash flows will go to them.

On top of the fact that on some CDM projects 60% of the proceeds go to the middlemen, developers, verifiers, bureaucrats, traders, promoters ad nauseum.

It's time for the politicians to reach between their legs and see if they got a pair.

(old Lehman line, ca. 1984).

Some of our previous posts on Nick Stern:

Sir Nicholas Stern: Carbon Cowboy

“Bali will set in motion a process that will define the structure
of the carbon markets for decades to come”
“By 2020 the global carbon market could be worth EUR 240-
450 billion”
-Sir Nicholas Stern
Climateer "Quote of the Day" (International Dateline Edition)

"This (climate change) is much too important to leave to environment ministers"
-Sir Nicholas Stern
to Finance Ministers basking in Bali
Carbon Credits Undervalued For Phase II - IDEAcarbon's Global Carbon Report Shows Carbon Price At Odds With Market Drivers

Deutsche Bank said something similar in "You're Not Buying Enough Carbon Credits" Deutsche Bank"....
‘No patenting of clean technology, please’

That's Nicholas Stern talking. I'm curious how my florescent green venture capitalist friends will react.
For the most part they were okey-dokey with Sir Nick when he was downplaying the costs of mitigation.*...
Sir Nicholas Stern: Cost of Carbon Biz Has Doubed to 2% of World Economy

No it hasn't.
Sir Nick was low balling the cost of his proposals last year.
On May 31, 2007 we wrote:

...we're starting to get to the real number and we should be able to keep it all under a third-of-a-trillion dollars per year for the U.S. contribution (before adding in direct costs like putting vodka in your tank but that's okay, the Stern number of 1% of World Gross Product should be 2% minimum so we've got incorrect estimates piling on incorrect estimates anyway).

I don't know why he was having fun with numbers but he was. If a humble blogger can work the abacus I'm pretty sure Stern knew....