Green Energy Jobs Report

Thank you Jim Harris. A solid presentation, well documented and sourced, on the economic advantages of going green - dispelling the myth that we have to give up success to save the environment.

One aspect of this new green entrepreneuring is puzzling: Carbon-trading or cap-and-trade, much discussed and debated. A recent documentary 'Carbon Hunters' by the CBC ‘Doc Zone’, although it has some technical flaws does raise some troubling questions:

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/ID=1343651361

Many of the ‘carbon-credits’ are arising from projects or changes that were already planned or, would likely happen anyway simply due to the rising costs of energy. Officially these shouldn’t count as ‘carbon credits’ but practically speaking, its impossible to monitor. For one example, the practice of using methane from composting and land-fills, for fuel is gaining rapidly because of rising fuel costs; yet this now is going to receive carbon-credits for converting methane to CO2 and water.

Entrepreneurs can receive enormous carbon credits by buying huge areas of the Amazon rain forest and pledging that they will never be cut down. This is naïve at best. There are no guarantees. Companies that cut down the forests for the wood and convert it to farming soybeans for China, simply pay-off local officials and do it anyway. Laws and contracts are simply not enforceable in the jungles of Brazil. Similarly, tree-planting projects that receive credits are not monitored to see that the trees actually survive.

In even the best case scenario, a high polluter, like a tar-sands company that is extremely profitable can just ‘buy the right to pollute’ rather than re-engineer their process to a closed system. This simply transfers the green-house gas emissions from one operation which is polluting less, to one that pollutes more - with no net reduction. The theory that all companies will invest to reduce their carbon emissions doesn’t hold water. If all companies did this, there would be an excess of sellers and a shortage of buyers.

In the worst case scenario, companies buy the right to pollute from operations that were going greener anyway, or from a wish and a hope that trees will survive. Its a very questionable strategy which may have demonstrated some positive effects. But also may delay and impede the real incentives to go green which you so clearly outline in your presentation.