Sunday 1 May 2011

Transparency International: Climate change money 'wide open to major corruption'

"Where huge amounts of money flow through new and untested financial markets and mechanisms, there is a risk of corruption,"

This is what Transparency International has to say about the billions of dollars that are going to be - and in many cases already are - distributed to some of the world´s most corrupt countries in the name of fighting (imaginary) human caused climate change:

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.
The organisation warns that 20 nations most vulnerable to climate change – where millions in grants and aid will be targeted – are judged to be among the most corrupt in the world – and stronger oversight is needed to ensure the funds are properly spent. None of the countries, which include Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Vietnam, scores higher than 3.6 on TI's influential Corruption Perception Index, where 0 is wholly corrupt and 10 "very clean".

The report, Global Corruption Report: Climate Change, estimates the total investment into combating global climate change will reach almost $700bn (£420bn) by 2020. "Where huge amounts of money flow through new and untested financial markets and mechanisms, there is a risk of corruption," it says.
Carbon markets, the main financial tool for combating climate change, have already been hit by fraud, the report points out. In January, the European Union's carbon market was shut down after it was attacked by cyber-hackers. More than three million carbon credits were stolen from government and private company accounts.
The system has also been hit by repeated tax frauds. One scheme to meet all of Europe's power needs from concentrated solar power plants covering 1 per cent of the Sahara desert was undermined after experts said bureaucratic complexity and corruption in north Africa raised the risks and costs of investment there. After an investigation by Spanish officials, it was discovered that more than one in 10 of its solar parks was falsely registered as operational, despite making no contribution to the energy grid.

Read the entire article here

PS
The TI report may be read by some of the EU bureaucrats so generously distributing tax payers´ billions to corrupted regimes, but it is highly unlikely that they will actually take any serious action to prevent the growing fraud connected with climate change money - partly because the "vulnerable" regimes on the receiving side will object to meddling in their "internal affairs". But that does not worry the true believers in the climate change religion too much. The main thing seems to be that the European Union is able to boast about being a "global leader" in combating climate change. And, of course, EU bureacrats are used to living with waste and fraud - one only needs to think about the what happens to much of the money handed out as structural and agricultural aid.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

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