CARBON OFFSETS: NO SURE BET TO PREVENT CLIMATE CHANGE

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels. In 2005, the European Union implemented a "cap-and-trade" scheme that allows a country (or company) to meet its emission targets by paying others to reduce their emissions.

The problem is that these programs have not lowered overall emissions in developed countries:

• In the European Union (EU), emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) have gone up, not down.
• By contrast, CO2 emissions in the United States, which did not ratify the Kyoto treaty, have grown much more slowly than in the EU.
• U.S. emissions even declined in 2006.

[But a lot of speculators {like a fellow named Gore} have made money speculating on their trading...]

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