豆知识 2011-06-05&06-10 “总量管制和交易”的故事

 A growing movement of scientists, students, farmers and forward-thinking business people are all saying “Wait a minute!” In fact, even the economists¹ who invented the cap and trade system to deal with simpler problems like fertilizer pollution and sulfur² dioxide, they say cap and trade will never work for climate change. Here is why I think they’re right.

 

 

 

When it comes to any kind of financial scam, like subprime mortgages or Bernie Madoff’s pyramid scheme, the devil is always in the details, and there are a lot of devils in the details of the cap and trade proposals on the table.

 

 

 

Devil number one is known as free permits, which is why some people call this system cap and giveaway. In this scheme, industrial polluters will get the vast majority of these valuable permits for free. Free! The more they've been polluting, the more they get. It's like we're thanking them for creating this problem in the first place.

 

 

 

In Europe, they tried the cap and giveaway system, the price of permits bounced around like crazy, energy costs jumped for consumers, and guess what? Carbon emissions³ actually went up! The only part that did work was that the polluters made billions of dollars in extra profits.

 

 

 

MIT economists say the same thing would likely happen here in the US. Those billions come from our pockets. A real solution would put that money to work stopping climate change. Instead of just giving permits away to polluters, we could sell them, and use the money to build a clean-energy economy, or give citizens a dividend⁴ to help pay for higher fuel prices when we transition to that clean-energy economy, or share it with those most harmed by climate change. Some people call this paying our ecological⁵ debt. 

 

 

 

Since we in the richest countries released the most carbon for centuries and lived a pretty comfy lifestyle in the process, don't we have a responsibility to help those most harmed? It's like we had a big party, didn't invite our neighbors and then stuck them with a cleanup bill. It's just not cool.

 

 

 

Did you know that in the next century, because of the changing climate, whole isle⁶ nations could end up underwater? And the UN says 9 out of 10 African farmers could lose their ability to grow food. Now wouldn’t a real solution benefit these people instead of just the polluters?

 

 

 

Devil number two is called offsetting⁸. Offset⁷ permits are created when a company supposedly removes or reduces carbon. They then get a permit which can be sold to a polluter who wants permission to emit more carbon. In theory, one activity offsets⁹ the other.

 

 

 

The danger with offsets is it's very hard to guarantee that the real carbon is being removed to create the permit, yet these permits are worth real money. This creates a very dangerous incentive¹⁰ to create false offsets, to cheat. Now in some cases cheating isn't the end of the world, but in this case, it is.

 

 

 

And already, there’s a lot of cheating going on. Like in Indonesia, Sinar Mas Corporation cut down indigenous¹¹ forests causing major ecological and cultural destruction, then they took the wasteland they created and planted palm oil trees. Guess what they can get for it? Yep, offset permits. Carbon out? No. Carbon in? You bet.

 

 

 

Companies can even earn offsets for not anything at all. Like operators of a polluting factory can claim they were planning to expend¹² 200%, but reduced the plans to expend only 100%. For that meaningless claim, they get offset permits, permits that they can sell to someone else to make more pollution. That is so stupid.

 

 

 

The list of scams go on and on, and many of the worst ones happen in the so-called Third World where big business does whatever it wants, to whomever it wants. And with lax standards and regulations on offsets, they can get permits for just about anything.

1 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 sulfur   

n.硫，硫磺（=sulphur）

参考例句：

• Sulfur emissions from steel mills become acid rain.炼钢厂排放出的硫形成了酸雨。
• Burning may produce sulfur oxides.燃烧可能会产生硫氧化物。

3 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

4 dividend   

n.红利，股息；回报，效益

参考例句：

• The company was forced to pass its dividend.该公司被迫到期不分红。
• The first quarter dividend has been increased by nearly 4 per cent.第一季度的股息增长了近 4%。

5 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

6 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

7 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

8 offsetting   

n.偏置法v.抵消( offset的现在分词 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管

参考例句：

• Dealers, having concluded a forward contract, should always hedge with an offsetting contract. 外汇经营商在签订了一项远期合同之后总是应进行套头交易签订一项相抵合同。 来自辞典例句
• Where does Germany think offsetting shifts into greater external deficits might occur? 在德国看来，这么大的外部赤字应该转移到哪里？ 来自互联网

9 offsets   

n.开端( offset的名词复数 )；出发v.抵消( offset的第三人称单数 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管

参考例句：

• The following paragraphs deal with intra-source offsets and the so-called \"bubble\" concept. 下面讨论污染源内部的补偿和所谓的“泡泡”概念。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The preceding paragraphs were concerned with inter-source offsets. 前文牵涉到污染源之间的补偿。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

10 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

11 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

12 expend   

vt.花费，消费，消耗

参考例句：

• Don't expend all your time on such a useless job.不要把时间消耗在这种无用的工作上。
• They expend all their strength in trying to climb out.他们费尽全力想爬出来。