We need to reduce our dependence on Russian gas… and… find… a… dependence… on Russian CO2 credits. You want to burn our gas? Pay us. You want to pay a little more for the right to keep burning our gas? Pay us twice. What a great racket!
“Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has made handsome profits selling natural gas to Europe. Now the company is positioning itself to make even more money, this time from the effluents from all that gas it sells to Europe. Gazprom announced Tuesday that it is selling carbon dioxide emissions credits that companies in the European Union need in order to burn Gazprom’s fuel.
The company is already testing the market for an innovative combination sale of fuel-and-emissions credits in countries that have undertaken to limit the release of gases that scientists say are warming the earth. In 2005, the European Union, the major market for Gazprom, introduced a cap-and-trade scheme that allows polluters to buy credits that allow them to pollute and nonpolluters to sell pollution credits that they won’t use. That system is now being closely watched as Congress considers a similar mechanism in the United States.
Gazprom’s effort is part of a major push by Russian energy companies, already the world’s largest exporters of oil and natural gas, to become major players in the growing market for carbon credits. As a country, Russia possesses the credits in abundance under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and hopes to transfer those benefits to its companies. ...
In total, Russia can reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol by two billion to three billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2012, according to government figures. At current prices, the total value for Russian carbon credits could be between 30 billion and 45 billion euros, or about $40 billion to $60 billion. But if negotiations to extend the Kyoto Protocols collapse, carbon credits could be worth nothing. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/business/worldbusiness/25carbon.html?hp
Interessierte Leser und besorgte Bundestagsabgeordnete wollen jetzt natürlich genau wissen, mit welchen Tricks die russische Regierung Deutschland und die EU so einfach reinlegen konnte? Die Schmierenkomödie funktioniert so: Der Kremel hat vor drei Monaten ganz einfach - hokus, pokus - die russische “Kyoto baseline”, also den CO2 Grenzwert für das Jahr 1990, um 600 Million Tonnen CO2e erhöht. Mit einem Schlag haben Putins Leute damit CO2 Kredite im Werte von 10 Milliarden Euro “erwirtschaftet” die jetzt europäischen Unternehmen zum Kauf angeboten werden. Auf französisch nennt man das schlicht ‘corriger la fortune.’
Sie glauben mir nicht, dass Klimabürokraten auf einen derart offensichtlichen Taschenspielertrick reinfallen konnten? Dann sollten Sie besser hier nachlesen: “Russia has for the first time submitted its greenhouse gas inventory to the UNFCCC. Compared to the national communication submitted in October, the 1990 emissions – and thereby the Kyoto target – are estimated 576 million tonnes of CO2e higher in the new inventory. http://www.pointcarbon.com/Home/News/Allnews/KyotoInternational/article19787-472.html
