Loophole exploited in carbon-credit facilities

Nature : Although carbon credits were created as part of the Kyoto Protocol to encourage nations to invest in emissions-reduction projects, they can become so valuable that in some cases they have presented a perverse incentive. For certain waste gases, revenues from carbon credits can exceed the abatement costs and even the costs of producing the main product, according to a recent study published in Nature Climate Change. Such was the case for at least two Russian chemical plants, which since 2008, when the credit scheme began, were found to have increased their production of two potent greenhouse gases—trifluoromethane and sulfur hexafluoride—with no corresponding increase in their production of chlorodifluoromethane, a chemical used as a refrigerant. They then collected the financial benefits from destroying the greenhouse gases that they had produced. Such abuses exist, say the study authors, because of the lack of oversight by participating governments. The program may be improved or even abandoned altogether as new climate targets are set at the upcoming United Nations climate change conference to be held in Paris later this year.