A LOOK AT THE RATHER IFFY HISTORY OF CARBON-TRADING IN EUROPE:

In some ways, Europe’s program has been a success. It covers 45 percent of the continent’s emissions, 10,000 companies and 27 European Union countries. It has built registries that list carbon dioxide emissions for every major plant.

In other ways, the approach has been a bureaucratic morass with a host of unexpected and costly side effects and a much smaller effect on carbon emissions than planned. And many companies complain that it is unfair.

Nice idea in principle, but highly prone to cheating and obfuscation when put into practice. Lots more on this at Hit and Run.