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24 July 2006, International Herald Tribune

EU trading of pollution credits fails on goals

Excerpt from Bloomberg news article: 

"When European Union officials created a market for trading pollution credits, they boasted that it was a "cost-conscious way" to save the planet from global warming. Five years later, the EU is failing to meet the Kyoto Protocol's carbon dioxide emission standards. Rather than help protect the environment, the trading system has led to increases in electricity prices of more than 50 percent and record profits for RWE and other utilities...

In Germany, Europe's largest economy, average wholesale electricity prices for delivery the next day surged 61 percent last year. The gain in Britain was 66 percent. Both jumps were larger than the 46 percent increase in Brent crude oil. 'The utilities have enjoyed windfall profits,' said Antony White, Head of Research at Climate Change Capital and a former Citigroup analyst.

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