Show me the money

Which organization has the most delegates in Poland? The US or UK government? Japan or China? WWF or Greenpeace? No, it’s the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).

IETA has 256 people walking the corridors in Poznan, including representatives from Eon, the company behind Kingsnorth power station. They are hosting 51 events, supported by sponsors such as BP, Shell and Clifford Chance.

Fossil fuel companies need emissions trading to allow them to keep emitting; finance companies need it to make money out of the trading of carbon credits.

The supply of carbon credits was under discussion on Wednesday morning in the review of the Clean Development Mechanism, the scheme which generates carbon credits in developing countries for sale as offset permits to rich countries and companies.

Research has shown that most carbon credits do not create reductions in emissions; the projects they are supposedly funding would have happened anyway. But companies have come here with an agenda that the Clean Development Mechanism should have even less regulation in the future.

Citing concerns that the supply of carbon credits could dry up, in this morning’s meeting the IETA, with their allies the World Bank, were pushing for the removal of “barriers to CDM growth”. Less regulation = more carbon credits, more money, more emissions. Tonight they will continue pushing this message in an exclusive private dinner with the officials who regulate the Clean Development Mechanism. (At the Delicja Restaurant - apparently "Poznań fine dining doesn’t get better than this")

Any adequate global deal to tackle climate change will require an end to carbon offsetting. But that means overcoming these powerful vested interests and corporate lobbying.