Originally blogged at Realclimategate
Both The Independent and The Telegraph write today about a Transparency International Report entitled – Global Corruption Report: Climate Change.
Whilst corruption in Carbon Markets, Carbon Credits, windfarms scams, Solar power fraud and many other clever money making mechanisms, is not new news.
It will be hard for governments and environmental groups to ignore this report. Not least when it spells out that many of the poor countries ‘affected by climate change’ are also amongst the most corrupt.
The Independant chose the headline: Green Schemes are ‘Wide Open to Major Corruption’
“Corruption is threatening global steps to combat climate change, a new report from Transparency International (TI) warned yesterday. Billions of pounds will be plundered and wasted, it says, unless stronger measures are introduced against embezzlement and misappropriation.” – Independent
The Telegraph chose the headline: Climate Change spending at risk of fraud and Corruption
The report states: “Where huge amounts of money flow through new and untested financial markets and mechanisms, there is always a risk of corruption.”
It warns: “Corruption risks are also high because of the level of complexity, uncertainty and novelty that surrounds many climate issues.”- Telegraph
Who needs fraud and corruption anyway to make money out of ‘climate change’?
Also reported today by the BBC, The Times and The Telegraph a piece of news which highlights the massive subsidies behind wind turbine electricty generation
The Telegraph: Wind farms paid £900,000 to switch off for one night
Wind farms operators were paid £900,000 by the National Grid to disconnect their turbines for one night because the electricity was not needed.
The six Scottish wind farms were asked to stop producing electricity on a particularly windy night last month as the National Grid was overloaded.
Their transition cables do not have the capacity to transfer the power to England and so they were switched off and the operators received compensation. One operator received £312,000, while another benefited by £263,000
Thus this story highlights the complete mess that the UK electricity infrastructure and UK Energy policy is in alongside the unsustainable amount of subsidies going to all those companies involved in the greenrush for renewables.
“Hasty attempts to meet targets for renewable energy mean some Scottish wind farms are now in the extraordinary position of not only printing money when they generate, but printing it even faster when they throw their energy away,” he told the Sunday Times.
The average turbine is understood to generate power worth about £150,000 a year, but is awarded incentives in the form of subsidies worth £250,000.” – Telegraph (The Times is behind a paywall)
I expect ever higher electricity bills in the UK may eventually focus the politicians thoughts on ALL the issues above.
Links: (you can buy the report)
The Transparency International Report – Global Corruption Report – Climate Change
Unsettled Climate 