A recent issues by WIRED magazine tickled my concerns for carbon markets…and the ‘global generalization’ they represent. The article points out some of the fundamental problems with the Kyoto Protocol…and the huge issues of certification and monitoring.
But where the article gets REALLY interesting is in the last paragraph….”Nationally managed emission-trading schemes could do a better job than Kyoto’s we-are-the-world approach by adding legal enforcement and serious oversight. But many economists favor a simpler way: a tax on fossil fuels. A carbon tax would eliminate three classes of parasites that have evolved to fill niches created by the global climate protocol: cynical marketers intent on greenwashing, blinkered bureaucrats shoveling indulgences to powerful incumbents, and deal-happy Wall Streeters looking for a shiny new billion-dollar trading toy. Back to the drawing board, please.”
OUCH!…at least they say markets are better mechanisms for change than command and control.
I admit being in meetings where the “Wall Streeters” remind me of the local subdivision developer who wants to pay $200k for a property and make $2M in a couple of years…while doing little work and ruining the natural assets of the property.
Richard Pace 
WIRED says that “[a] carbon tax would eliminate … blinkered bureaucrats…”. I think that any type of tax would in fact add power to the “blinkered bureaucrats”, because they will have more money to control.
How about a reverse approach – tax credit for purchasing any carbon-credits? This, of course, should be a part of a comprehensive energy policy, that addresses other aspects of the whole host of problems that the carbon-credits were designed to fix.
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