Was the cap and trade scheme a deceitful and worthless scrap of paper as The Guardian says?
Nothing wrong with cap & trade in principle. If it applied only to real carbon flows (eg need permits for digging up fossil fuels or chopping down trees, only get permits for burying carbon somehow) then it would probably work just fine. However, current carbon trading is based around imaginary ‘potential’ carbon flows. I honestly believe it’s inefficient and ridiculously open to abuse. It will partly work, because it will add a price to carbon (which simple economics tells you will lead to cuts), but it’ll be very expensive and open to abuse. IMO, a carbon tax is more simple. Less bureaucratic and will probably be more efficient (and gives greater long term certainty). I think this is why The Economist supports it.
