Copenhagen - It's all about fat cat global businesses...

[WhiskeyGirl]

Copenhagen Climate Change: Summit failure 'putting investment at risk'

Failure to reach a deal at the Copenhagen climate change talks would "waste many months" for businesses hoping to invest billions in the energy sector, according to the International Chamber of Commerce.

Why are businesses waiting?  Isn't clean up a good thing, even if some aren't on board?

Or, are you freeloading?  Waiting for free money?  Waiting for the corrupt to be given their allowance?

"A failure would mean we will lack the clarity to invest beyond 2012," said Laurent Corbier, chairman of the ICC for environment and vice-president of nuclear company Areva. "It will send a signal to businesses that we have wasted many months down the track."

Why would it be a waste to business? 

At the global climate change talks, Anthony Hobley, head of climate change and carbon finance at law firm Norton Rose, said failure to fix targets and financing at Copenhagen could delay investment in the energy sector by up to two years.

How much is his firm in line to make off of the treaties?  The climate change business?  Taxpayers? 

"It would be the worst possible outcome for business," he said. "There is $17bn (£10.4bn) in funds under management, waiting to see what the outcome of these talks will be."

Why not give away the $17bn?   Aren't there some needy folks?

Abyd Karmali, global head of carbon markets for Merrill Lynch, said it is still possible taxes on aviation and shipping fuel could be agreed since these sectors are "easy pickings" if countries realise that public money on the table from each country is not enough.

How much will Merrill Lynch make off of the carbon markets?  WHY ISN'T  CLIMATE CHANGE A NOT FOR PROFIT ENTERPRISE?

Will Karmali lose his job if there are no carbon markets?  No bonus?

He said markets would also be watching to see whether Europe commits to deepening its emission cuts from 20pc to 30pc by 2020, which could increase demand for tradeable carbon allowances.

Experts also expressed concern that countries may fail to agree on cross-border accounting measures, creating confusion for investors.

What about the consumers?  Small business?  Taxpayers?  Ratepayers?  Why do they have to pay more?

Why is it about money and not reducing pollution?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6835190/Copenhagen-Climate-Change-Summit-failure-putting-investment-at-risk.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

The deadlock over who should cut carbon emissions and by how much may be dominating the headlines here in Copenhagen but behind the scenes an equally big issue is being thrashed out. It's a fight for control of the massive new fund that will challenge our changing climate.

So far there has been no agreement regarding how this money should be managed and where it should be channelled as negotiating bodies from the developed and developing worlds hold fast to their polarised positions.

"So far, we have no agreement on the new climate fund or the body that will oversee it" Jukka Uosukainen, a co-facilitator representing the developed countries in the financial negotiations told the BBC.

It's like families fighting over the inheritance.

Meanwhile, it's understood that the EU is insisting that existing institutions should be allowed to do the job as it believes that creating new ones will only cause delay, as has happened with the Climate Adaptation Fund that was formed two years ago to help developing countries adapt, but has yet to come online.

It sounds like healthcare-pay in for years and get nothing. 

Will Al Gores ten years come and go and the money will still be depreciating? 

But Farrukh Khan says that the problem is that financing the fight against climate change is being viewed by the developed world as overseas development assistance as usual.

"It is not like giving aid to poor countries, it is basically compensating the poor for making them so vulnerable and exposed to the impacts of climate change," Mr Khan told the BBC. "It's a completely different issue."

Maybe they haven't notices that they are newly vulnerable and exposed to climate change? 

Maybe the leadership isn't worrying about climate change, but is interested is SPENDING all this AID money?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8419048.stm

[WhiskeyGirl]

Fraud in Europe's Cap and Trade System a 'Red Flag,' Critics Say

But, according to a diagram of the scheme provided by Europol officials, the accused traders would open an account in a national carbon registry and then purchased emission allowances without value added taxes from other companies in other countries. Those allowances were then transferred to the country where they were registered before the accused trader moves them to an unregulated broker, selling the allowances on a trading exchange, often through various buffer companies. Finally, the accused trader charges the value added tax on the transaction but does not submit that money to authorities.

Somehow, cap & trade is going to create a new economy for the US?  Filled with jobs and prosperity?

It's a lesson to be learned, critics of cap-and-trade say. Creating such a system in the United States would invite "corruption, illegality and criminal activity," much as it has in Europe, said Max Schulz, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

"This is the problem with politicians trying to create a market for something that the free market otherwise doesn't value," Schulz said. "An emissions trading market is an artificially, politically-created market....

Environmental Obama 'widgets' = no real value, but folks will be taxed for them?  Al Gore will make millions?

"Depending on how many emission allowances you have to purchase and how many emission allowances you are given, you can be a winner or a loser," she said. "It'll be an opportunity for corruption, not by tax avoidance but by political corruption, both on the state level and the national level."

more here - http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/14/fraud-europes-cap-trade-red-flag-critics-say/

Taxing and making money on something that has no value?

Politicians making folks buy the air they breath?  Tax the air?