Green Options » million http://greenoptions.com/tag/million Posts tagged 'million' Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:54:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Britain’s Worst Carbon Polluters Set For Multi-Million Pound Windfall http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/15/britains-worst-carbon-polluters-set-for-multi-million-pound-windfall/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/15/britains-worst-carbon-polluters-set-for-multi-million-pound-windfall/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:54:43 +0000 Andrew Williams http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/15/britains-worst-carbon-polluters-set-for-multi-million-pound-windfall/ An in-depth investigation by The Guardian newspaper has revealed that many of Britain’s most polluting companies stand to receive a windfall of hundreds of millions of pounds, with no benefit to the environment.

The huge handout comes as a result of the over allocation of carbon permits to some of the biggest names in world business, including Ford, Toyota and pharmaceuticals giant Astra Zeneca.

Under the European Union’s flagship carbon trading scheme, permits are distributed to companies by the government, and are intended to account for their carbon emissions over the following five year period. However, figures published by the European Commission reveal that many recipients have been allocated far too many permits, which they can sell for cash. The total over-allocation runs to nine million permits across 200 companies. At the current price of £21, these could be sold for a total of £189 million (around $340 million).

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