The carbon market – gone in a puff of smoke?Sabina Manea recalls my favorite analogy with the medieval indulgences and says that no real assets are backing the documents. The indulgences may disappear into thin air.
The CO2 accounts in my homeland, the Czech Republic, became the latest victim of hackers who stole 1.306 million indulgences. After they were stolen, they circulated in Poland, Italy, Estonia, Lichtenstein, and Germany.
The carbon trading has become a significant fraction of the global organized crime: just in 2010, the market grew to EUR 92 billion and became the fastest growing "commodity" market in the financial history. It's time to scrap it altogether, Ms Manea says, and it's time to put those who have been making money on it into prisons or electrical chairs, I add.
