Alberta has filed 25 criminal charges against a company involved in auditing carbon offsets..The courts can decide who's right and who's wrong..But, this action reveals deeper trouble in a complicated industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually..Carbon offsets are bought and sold under a trading system when the government places a price on carbon dioxide emissions. The “bad behavior tax” was created to coerce companies to adjust their operations to respond to the political policies concerning climate change..Since 2007, Alberta has run a mandatory carbon offset system for large carbon dioxide producers, such as oil and gas companies, landfills, and food processing firms. Companies purchase credits to offset their carbon production. The credits are created by others who reduce emissions by building wind farms or installing solar panels. To ensure accuracy, the credits are supposed to be verified by third-party auditors..The Alberta charges are against a third-party verifier, Amberg Corp, related to the Emissions Management and Climate Resilience Act..The charges include providing false information and breaching rules related to auditing and verifying carbon offsets. It is alleged that they provided false information, performed functions of a third-party assurance provider without the required qualifications and failed to comply with the rules and requirements set out in the Standard for Validation, Verification, and Audit. The next court date is July 19..In 2020, large carbon producers in Alberta made $548 million in payments under Alberta's offset rules. Carbon markets are complex, therefore transparent practices for verifying the traded offsets are fundamental for the overall system to work..I wrote in the Western Standard on June 23 that: “One of the prescriptions is promoting carbon offsets. However, claiming 'net zero' allows industry to so-called 'greenwash their operations.'.The scheme is to have industrial processes continue while paying farmers, foresters and others to offset their emissions through trapping carbon in soil and trees..They then establish markets to trade the carbon. These transactions and credit systems do not reduce emissions; they simply re-assign responsibility. The industry continues while claiming to be net-zero by buying offsets. It’s another theory that does not measure in the real world..More than a decade of carbon trading has shown that carbon markets are ineffective at reducing their enemy, CO2. This fantasy has been plagued by fraud and creative accounting.”.Currently, the price of a tonne of carbon dioxide in Alberta is $65. That will more than double by 2030 to $170 per tonne, as part of a political deal between the province and federal government. This penalty tax was created in the hope that companies would be more likely to develop new technologies to reduce their carbon dioxide production..However, critics say carbon trading allows companies to appear like they're making a difference, but the trading market does little to actually do anything that can be verified about global warming..Canadian jurisdictions run several different carbon trading systems, including the mandatory reductions compliance system in Alberta..Farmers who implement environmental changes can have them verified by an independent auditor, which generates offset credits that are then sold to large carbon dioxide creators. Ideally, this exchange is supposed to put money back into the hands of farmers, theoretically reducing manmade carbon dioxide in the atmosphere..If Canada is going to continue this scheme, the evidence so far from the implementation indicates that a national standard is required. Buying a credit for one tonne of carbon anywhere in the country must come with a guarantee, and can be traded anywhere within Canada. There must be a simple credible national system..Most Canadians are unaware of this complex system and the huge amount of our tax dollars floating around. They are also unaware of what the Liberals are up to on the international stage and what they are boastfully committing Canada to pay to other nations in exchange for bragging rights at the gatherings of the elites at international climate conferences..This month Environment and Climate Change Minister, Steven Guilbeault, announced Canada is contributing an additional $450 million to support developing countries to pay for climate action. (Note: Early on, the Liberals changed the ministerial department name of “Environment Canada” to “Environment and Climate Change Canada”..Canadian taxpayers observe their money being deposited into the Green Climate Fund (GCF) — used by others to implement the Paris Agreement..Remember that on Dec. 12, 2015, Canada and 194 other countries made a deal in Paris, an ambitious, grandiose, inflated wish to fight climate change and limit the global average temperature rise to below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C..The bottom line is that if nations spend trillions ineffectively on poorly designed climate policies, not only are we not properly responding to climate change, but we're wasting an enormous amount of money that could’ve been spent on fixing many other urgent needs..Canada has spent an estimated $60 billion since 2015 — with billions more promised..How's that working out? We don't know because the government does not do a cost/benefit analysis on the programs or spending. They don't want to know because if the public found out how poor they were, there would be a revolution in the streets. As the federal Ministry of the Environment has said, it "cannot estimate whether any regulation had its intended effect."
Alberta has filed 25 criminal charges against a company involved in auditing carbon offsets..The courts can decide who's right and who's wrong..But, this action reveals deeper trouble in a complicated industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually..Carbon offsets are bought and sold under a trading system when the government places a price on carbon dioxide emissions. The “bad behavior tax” was created to coerce companies to adjust their operations to respond to the political policies concerning climate change..Since 2007, Alberta has run a mandatory carbon offset system for large carbon dioxide producers, such as oil and gas companies, landfills, and food processing firms. Companies purchase credits to offset their carbon production. The credits are created by others who reduce emissions by building wind farms or installing solar panels. To ensure accuracy, the credits are supposed to be verified by third-party auditors..The Alberta charges are against a third-party verifier, Amberg Corp, related to the Emissions Management and Climate Resilience Act..The charges include providing false information and breaching rules related to auditing and verifying carbon offsets. It is alleged that they provided false information, performed functions of a third-party assurance provider without the required qualifications and failed to comply with the rules and requirements set out in the Standard for Validation, Verification, and Audit. The next court date is July 19..In 2020, large carbon producers in Alberta made $548 million in payments under Alberta's offset rules. Carbon markets are complex, therefore transparent practices for verifying the traded offsets are fundamental for the overall system to work..I wrote in the Western Standard on June 23 that: “One of the prescriptions is promoting carbon offsets. However, claiming 'net zero' allows industry to so-called 'greenwash their operations.'.The scheme is to have industrial processes continue while paying farmers, foresters and others to offset their emissions through trapping carbon in soil and trees..They then establish markets to trade the carbon. These transactions and credit systems do not reduce emissions; they simply re-assign responsibility. The industry continues while claiming to be net-zero by buying offsets. It’s another theory that does not measure in the real world..More than a decade of carbon trading has shown that carbon markets are ineffective at reducing their enemy, CO2. This fantasy has been plagued by fraud and creative accounting.”.Currently, the price of a tonne of carbon dioxide in Alberta is $65. That will more than double by 2030 to $170 per tonne, as part of a political deal between the province and federal government. This penalty tax was created in the hope that companies would be more likely to develop new technologies to reduce their carbon dioxide production..However, critics say carbon trading allows companies to appear like they're making a difference, but the trading market does little to actually do anything that can be verified about global warming..Canadian jurisdictions run several different carbon trading systems, including the mandatory reductions compliance system in Alberta..Farmers who implement environmental changes can have them verified by an independent auditor, which generates offset credits that are then sold to large carbon dioxide creators. Ideally, this exchange is supposed to put money back into the hands of farmers, theoretically reducing manmade carbon dioxide in the atmosphere..If Canada is going to continue this scheme, the evidence so far from the implementation indicates that a national standard is required. Buying a credit for one tonne of carbon anywhere in the country must come with a guarantee, and can be traded anywhere within Canada. There must be a simple credible national system..Most Canadians are unaware of this complex system and the huge amount of our tax dollars floating around. They are also unaware of what the Liberals are up to on the international stage and what they are boastfully committing Canada to pay to other nations in exchange for bragging rights at the gatherings of the elites at international climate conferences..This month Environment and Climate Change Minister, Steven Guilbeault, announced Canada is contributing an additional $450 million to support developing countries to pay for climate action. (Note: Early on, the Liberals changed the ministerial department name of “Environment Canada” to “Environment and Climate Change Canada”..Canadian taxpayers observe their money being deposited into the Green Climate Fund (GCF) — used by others to implement the Paris Agreement..Remember that on Dec. 12, 2015, Canada and 194 other countries made a deal in Paris, an ambitious, grandiose, inflated wish to fight climate change and limit the global average temperature rise to below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C..The bottom line is that if nations spend trillions ineffectively on poorly designed climate policies, not only are we not properly responding to climate change, but we're wasting an enormous amount of money that could’ve been spent on fixing many other urgent needs..Canada has spent an estimated $60 billion since 2015 — with billions more promised..How's that working out? We don't know because the government does not do a cost/benefit analysis on the programs or spending. They don't want to know because if the public found out how poor they were, there would be a revolution in the streets. As the federal Ministry of the Environment has said, it "cannot estimate whether any regulation had its intended effect."
