THE BIG BUSINESS OF POLLUTED AIR*

Edition-2
The certificates are so cheap because emissions trade has a loophole: the sale of indulgences between rich industrialized nations and the rest of the world.
With the money that German common people unknowingly invests in the emissions trade, RWE buys thousand of wood cookers sits in the dusty courtyard behind Patricia Cheelo house: a shiny, hexagonal, Knee-high drum of stainless steel punctured with air holes. All Cheelo needs is a few wooden sticks, which she places in the drum’s combustion chamber. She uses a pan that can be sealed very tightly.
Until recently, Cheelo required two huge sacks of charcoal each month to cook enough for herself, her children and her grandchildren. This would use up more than a third of her monthly income, approx. 28 euros. Thanks to the RWE cooker, which saves 80 per cent energy, Cheelo is now able to save 20 euros.

*By Malte Henk & Jurgen Schaefer

THE BIG BUSINESS OF POLLUTED AIR*

  Edition-1

On a particular day in June 2010, it is 15.64 euros. This is the sum that RWE pays for the right to release 1 tonne of CO2 through the chimneys of Niederaussem.

       The idea of putting a price tag on CO2 originated from the USA. In Kyoto, President Bill Clinton made emissions trading the condition for his ratification of the climate protection agreement. The USA wanted to buy its way out of its CO2 liability. The rest of world agreed-reluctantly-but to no avail. To date, the USA has refused to implement the decisions sanctioned in Kyoto.  On the other hand, the Europeans, who were against the trade in pollution rights, have been operating the World’s largest CO2 market since 2005.

        Emissions trading are based on the assumption that it is irrelevant where exactly in the world pollution reduced; & on the belief that governments cannot bring about the reduction as efficiently as the corporate sector.

      In order to turn polluted industrial air into a tradable commodity, governments have established an account of CO2 certificates for every major polluter in Europe. Each certificate represents the right to release 1 tonne of CO2. In 2010, RWE received about 15 million certificates for Niederaussem. This only covers about half its emissions. When the account is empty, man must either have Niederaussem output reduced-or buy more certificates.

*By Malte Henk & Jurgen Schaefer