Carbon Markets: "Government CO2 market growth may deter "green" spending"

My heart bleeds for the scam, formerly known as the CDM. From Reuters:

Clean energy project developers may lose carbon offset buyers as a result of the global economic downturn combined with increased transparency in a government-level emissions trading scheme under the Kyoto Protocol, French bank Societe Generale said on Monday.

Under the Kyoto climate change pact, nations that have seen their greenhouse gas emissions rise above target levels can buy offsets, called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), from clean energy projects in developing countries like China.

Project owners rejoiced last July when CER prices spiked to over 24 euros ($32.48) per metric ton of avoided carbon dioxide, prompting several buyer nations to seek cheaper ways of complying with Kyoto targets.

Through another more opaque Kyoto trading scheme, nations comfortably below their targets can sell excess emissions rights to other countries in the form of credits called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs).

Critics call these credits "hot air", arguing most were generated through economic restructuring in eastern Europe in the 1990s when polluting industries in ex-communist nations were closing, rather than by new investment in clean energy....MORE