Greenhouse gas credit would help U.S. meet its responsibilities

The framers of the Kyoto treaty to combat global warming recognized that governments and industries needed a huge economic carrot to cut man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other dangerous greenhouse gases.

Prodded by then-Vice President Al Gore, they wisely devised a free-market approach that allowed nations and companies to meet targeted caps on greenhouse emissions through a system of worldwide trading credits. Participants emitting less than the target amounts could sell their surplus "greenhouse gas credits" or "Certified Emission Reductions" to participants who were emitting more than allowed.

This ingenious system gave low-carbon emitters a financial incentive to reduce their "carbon footprint" and make still more money, while permitting heavier producers a chance to reduce their "carbon tax" by lowering their own emissions.

The Clinton administration led the push for the greenhouse gas credit trading system only to see the Bush administration scrap Kyoto and refuse to establish a credit trading system.

But all is not lost. As the realization slowly dawns that global warming poses an apocalyptic threat to the planet, greenhouse gas credit trading systems are being adopted worldwide. The Chicago Climate Exchange, the European Climate Exchange and such avant garde green states as California, Massachusetts and New York have taken the lead by establishing their own trading systems. Progressive American-based companies like IBM, International Paper and DuPont already are trading emissions credits on the Chicago Exchange — a financial maneuver that allowed them to meet a goal of reducing emissions by 4 percent in 2006.

Under Kyoto and the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, nations with surplus emission credits also can sell their credits to countries that have trouble meeting their targets. Generating $3 billion in revenue last year, the emission trading system has become a lucrative market for smart investors with an eye to the future.

Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism permits developed countries like Germany and France to establish green industries in countries like India and Uganda and receive credits for their own emission targets. Developing nations reap the benefits of green technology to reduce their own emissions. The financial incentives for slashing greenhouse gas emissions have spurred the growth of eco-friendly wind and solar power industries — especially in Germany, Sweden and France.

Sadly, a few anti-scientific foot-draggers — George W. Bush and his sycophantic conservative buddies such as Australia's Prime Minister John Howard and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper are the chief offenders — drag their feet and even interfere in the global effort to save our environment.

Fortunately, Senate and House Democrats — aided by a growing number of enlightened Republicans — are drafting legislation that would establish a national greenhouse emissions trading system.

The legislation, of course, faces strong opposition from the White House, pro-business lawmakers, Big Three auto lobbyists and myriad others quite happy with the disastrous status quo of six years of global warming denial by the once-dominant GOP.

Pressure must be brought to bear on Congress to get with the program to roll back global warming before it triggers a wave of unprecedented disasters that flood the world's coastal cities and kill millions.

Adoption of the innovative greenhouse gas credit trading system is a major first step in the struggle to pull our planet back from the precipice of total environmental collapse. The recent Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change report presenting the scientific findings of researchers from 113 countries served to accentuate the peril of our present "do-nothing" strategy. Thousands of the world's most distinguished scientists have now concluded that unprecedented climate change is a clear and growing danger.

Although some argue that greenhouse gas credit trading is a baby step toward curbing climate change, it is the very least that Congress can do to have the United States, the world's greatest polluter, meet its social and moral responsibilities.

Wayne Madsen is a contributing writer for the liberal Online Journal. He wrote this commentary for the McClatchy-Tribune News Service.