Abstract
In recent years, carbon has been increasingly rendered ‘visible’ both discursively and through political processes that have imbued it with economic value. Greenhouse gas emissions have been constructed as social and environmental costs and their reduction or avoidance as social and economic gain. The ‘marketisation’ of carbon, which has been facilitated through various compliance schemes such as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, the Kyoto Protocol, the proposed Australian Emissions Reduction Scheme and through the voluntary carbon credit market, have attempted to bring carbon into the ‘foreground’ as an economic liability and/or opportunity. Accompanying the increasing economic visibility of carbon are reports of frauds and scams – the ‘gaming of carbon markets’(Chan 2010). As Lohmann (2010: 21) points out, ‘what are conventionally classed as scams or frauds are an inevitable feature of carbon offset markets, not something that could be eliminated by regulation targeting the specific businesses or state agencies involved’. This paper critiques the disparate discourses of fraud risk in carbon markets and examines cases of fraud within emerging landscapes of green criminology.
Highlights
As carbon trading booms, fraudsters—and cops—are getting into the game. (Shapiro 2010)Carbon dioxide, a toxic air pollutant, has in recent years become an economic opportunity through projects that abate or reduce emissions
Anthropogenic climate change is highly politicised and claims of fraud are asserted by disparate political actors, from green lobbyists who argue that carbon markets are a form of ‘commodification of nature’ to climate sceptics who link carbon fraud as one of the arguments for inaction on global warming (MacKenzie 2009: 451)
To what extent is fraud and fraud risk related to carbon commodification and marketisation? Is carbon another context for traditional scamming and fraud or is there some systemic relation between carbon marketisation and fraud? This article will address these questions and assess the extent to which carbon has become socially and economically visible with a market identity of special significance
Summary
Fraudsters—and cops—are getting into the game. (Shapiro 2010). A toxic air pollutant, has in recent years become an economic opportunity through projects that abate or reduce emissions. Widespread fraud in trading in the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) and in the production and sale of carbon credits from carbon abatement projects (offset projects) has been widely reported in the media (Lohmann 2010). Questions regarding the nature and extent of fraud in these contexts and their relationship to the quite unique institutional arrangements of carbon markets have been left unanswered and undeveloped. To what extent is fraud and fraud risk related to carbon commodification and marketisation? This article will address these questions and assess the extent to which carbon has become socially and economically visible with a market identity of special significance
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