April 25, 2007
Gazprom’s emissions goldmine
Gazprom has done a deal to buy carbon dioxide emissions reduction certiifcates in Brazil, which it can then sell in the EU, the New York Times reports. The arrangement is part of its plan to build a global carbon trading business to take advantage of the massive ptential for emissions reduction in Russia, as highlighted in the FT back in January.
The best quote in the NYT piece, from Gazprom Marketing and Trading’s PR man: "Russia is the Saudi Arabia of carbon.”
Of course, this is the way that the emissions trading system created by Kyoto and the EU’s own scheme, which will be linked from next year, are supposed to work. Incentives are created for emissions reductions to happen wherever in the world they are cheapest.
Whether EU energy users are prepared to pay through higher prices for $60bn worth of credits from Russia, with Gazprom and its partners no doubt claiming a healthy margin on the trades, may be another matter.
