In 2010-11, the carbon trust sold 7,385 tonnes to private clients such as Helijet International, Coast Hotels and the Vancouver Aquarium. But that figure dropped to 2,167 tonnes in 2011-12 after the trust lost West Coast Air as a client.
At $25 per tonne of carbon, the sales to private clients netted the Crown corporation only a little more than $54,000. The cash from private clients is dwarfed by money the Pacific Carbon Trust collects from the B.C. public sector of $18.2 million for nearly 730,000 tonnes of carbon credits.
Private companies are not obligated to buy carbon credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, provincial public institutions — including hospitals, universities and schools — have to pay the trust for carbon credits under B.C. law in order to hypothetically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero.
Jordan Bateman, a B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said it was always the plan of the Pacific Carbon Trust to grow its private sector business as outlined in the 2008 throne speech.
He said the failure of the trust to increase its private sector base is good reason to shut it down. “The bottom line is this year only $50,000 worth of carbon credits were sold to [private clients]; the rest all came from taxpayer funds.”
But Pacific Carbon Trust spokeswoman Hope Hickli said in an email: “While a component of [the trust’s] business, private clients are not a major focus.”
The taxpayers’ federation has been critical of the design of the province’s carbon credit scheme, where the Pacific Carbon Trust acts as a broker.
Said Bateman: “I think it’s broken. I think it’s one of those things you look at and say, ‘Hey, we tried to be a world leader. It didn’t pan out.’ Whatever the goal behind it, it hasn’t been accomplished, and by that measure, should be scrapped.”
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Gordon Hoekstra
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