Laughing all the way to the bank

Plans to exclude some offsetting projects from the EU's Emissions Trading System, due to be formally approved this month, have been watered down following lobbying by big business. Corporate Europe Observatory has obtained documents which show that BusinessEurope, the International Emissions Trading Association (representing carbon traders), the chemical lobby group CEFIC and some big companies such as Enel, lobbied DG Enterprise to sabotage DG Clima's proposals. The business groups found an ally in DG Enterprise. The ban will prohibit industrial gas offsets, which currently account for more than half of the available credits and are bought by European polluters as an alternative to cutting pollution at home. Read the full article here: