The big carbon fraud

25.11.2009

MUMBAI - With financial support from the Fonds Pascal Decroos, Nick Meynen followed carbon credit money flowing from Belgium to India, where he discovered a desert full of mirages. Part from the fraud and abuse, he also noticed the difference in approach between Flanders and Belgium, the buyers of carbon credits.

Flanders complains about the hot air that others buy, but in a flawed system it clearly only tries to get its accounting right. Even with the more stringent criteria that the federal government has, the question remains: how sustainable is a policy that buys carbon credits in a market where more than half of what you buy is not purified, but hot air? An official who could not take it any longer, told that "the projects that really reduce emissions and the sustainable projects always fall out". This article provides examples of how we think we are tackling the climate problem today, including evidence of fraud.

Supported

€3,880 granted on 02/06/2009

ID:

FPD/2009/725

Themes

Publication

PRINT/ONLINE (in Dutch)

Klimaatbeleid mist Doelmatigheid. De grote koolstoffraude, MO* december 2009.
Koolstofhandel: de zeepbel van het klimaatbeleid, Zacht geritsel - januari/februari/maart 2010.