Here's what’s happening in some European countries as I’m writing these lines (I’ve mentioned it briefly in last week’s posting Pushing on a String). Oil companies were assigned specific targets how much they have to reduce their carbon emissions annually. If they exceed their targets (i.e. reduce emissions by more than targeted), they receive a ce

Just for the fun of it, here’s a little brain teaser. Biofuels are made from biomass which goes through chemical processes at industrial plants. Why is that any different from fossil fuels? All the plankton, all the ancient forests and dinosaurs were nothing but biomass as well which was converted into oil and gas in natural chemical processes unde

To motivate economic agents, governments therefore have to set up bait: in the form of subsidies and regulations. And bait, especially in the form free government money, always attracts profiteers, scammers, and fraudsters. It is something like an iron law in economics: for every governmental scheme to hand out money, there’s a scheme to game the s

While it won’t ever be possible to confirm if those Chinese UERs were fraudulent, the German ministry of the environment has already declared it will not count them any longer towards emission targets. EUR 4 billion of German and Austrian consumers wasted, and energy companies will be required to purchase other UERs.