The Government/Carbon Trade Revolving Door

We've been posting on this phenomena for a while now. Most folks are aware of Al Gore's riches (although he canceled his Copenhagen speaking engagement and has to refund the $1200/head that he was charging) but it is the British who are flooding the field. There's Tony Blair:

Profit of Boom: Insurance job takes Blair's earnings above £7m

Kids, Some of These Green-Collar Jobs Pay Pretty Well

...According to details of his schedule obtained by The Sunday Times, Blair’s upcoming commitments include the climate conference in Abu Dhabi on January 21, a university talk near Boston on February 2 and a trip to a California theatre where tickets cost up to $380 each.

Blair ranks as the most expensive speaker in the world. His agents at the Washington Speakers Bureau typically charge $250,000 (£164,000) for a 90-minute speech.

He is also paid about £2m a year by JP Morgan Chase [climate change -ed.] and a further £500,000 a year by Zurich Financial Services [climate change -ed.]....

Blair's former science advisor, Sir David King:

Boffin King joins UBS

Lord Nicholas Stern is vice-chair of IDEAGlobal, parent of caron financier IDEACarbon. Here's another, Henry Derwent, from ClickGreen:

Blair’s climate man should have been handed two-year ban

Tony Blair’s former climate adviser now runs one of the world’s biggest lobby groups, whose membership includes energy giants BP, Shell and E.ON according to Channel 4 News Who Knows Who.

Henry Derwent, Tony Blair’s special representative during the UK G8 Presidency in 2005, is now president and CEO of a lobby group called the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).
Derwent, who was known as “the face of UK climate change policy”, used to work as government’s international climate change director.

For many years Derwent played a lead role in Whitehall delegations to UN climate talks, but in Copenhagen this month he will be representing IETA’s 171-strong membership, which includes some of the world’s wealthiest companies. The association is expected to take the largest non-governmental delegation to the Copenhagen talks.

Derwent joined the association in 2007 after a successful career as a civil servant; where he worked for both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Transport.

Such was Derwent’s standing, that IETA chairman Jack Cogen boasted upon his appointment that he had recruited “the face of the UK climate change policy”.

He added in the official press release: “With Henry’s appointment IETA has ensured that it will continue to play an important role in the international discussions on the use of market mechanisms in the fight against climate change.”>>>MORE

At the Bali climate get-together the IETA was the largest NGO:

Who is actually attending the Bali climate conference

So, who do you think is the biggest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Bali? Which NGO do you think has registered the most delegates to attend the climate conference? Is it Greenpeace? Is it the World Wide Fund for Nature? Could it be Friends of the Earth? Or maybe big business lobbyists the International Chamber of Commerce?

A couple of days ago I went through the official delegates list and did the complex mathematics (i.e. counting) to work this out. And to my surprise it’s a big fat nope to all of these guys.

It turns out the biggest NGO delegation in Bali is the lobbying group, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). With 336 representatives including lawyers, financiers, emissions traders, consultants, certifiers and emissions trading experts from companies like Shell, the IETA makes up 7.5% of the 4483 Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) delegates registered to attend the UN climate talks....MORE