Ten Ways to Game the Carbon Market

Remember how Wall Street traders crashed the economy in 2008 with their gambling on complex mortgage securities, and with 'dark market' derivatives? Well, the mortgage bubble may have burst, but the creation of carbon markets – one approach for reducing harmful greenhouse gas pollution – could create a whole new casino-like structure. Carbon trading systems are complex, and the more complex they are, the easier they are to manipulate. This presentation shows ten ways that carbon markets can be 'gamed', at the expense of both the economy and the climate.