My work on corporate environmental reporting (3 reports, one of which won
best UK report three years in succession), and my early-career auditing and
financial management experience in the 1980s, makes me very nervous indeed
about the practicalities of tracking carbon sufficiently to have a system
with integrity. Haven't time to go into this right now, but could talk off
line later. T

his is a real concern for me: most organisations' reports are based on very
poor quality data indeed and I think many years of work would be needed for
a system to be trustworthy. The UK emissions trading scheme (not so much the
EU one, which is based on primary energy use) could have a coach and horses
driven through it by any half-competent Finance Director.

Based on this, I fear for the social implications of the tradable carbon
credits approach. Again haven't really thought them through but my water
(usually a reasonable guide) makes me worried. I agreed with much of what
Chris McCoy said a day or two back, for instance.

I do support the idea in principle (having great support in principle for
contraction and convergence, which clearly offers a useful principle at the
international level) and so offer the concern as an area that needs to be
thought through very carefully rather than as a show stopper. As someone
said: the devil is in the detail.

We also need to remember that it was neither taxes nor tradable permits nor
laws that got the horses off the streets of London and Paris. By
investigating one option we need to keep our minds open to other
possibilities.

D

David Ballard
Alexander, Ballard & Associates
Strategy and human change for environmental sustainability
05600 433801 - work
01672 520561 - home
07840 544226 - mobile
Skype: ballardd
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.alexanderballard.co.uk 


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Keene
Sent: 18 November 2005 11:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Tradable carbon quotas

I am currently doing an MSc in climate change at the University of East 
Anglia and am planning to do my dissertation on tradable carbon quotas.  
Does anyone have any ideas of issues I should tackle?

Chris Keene 07801 250982 or 01603 501386