The Sky is Not the Limit: - Carbon Trade Watch

the scheme that were not abandonedand had been brought in by theirowners. Therefore credits were beinggenerated but no reductions werebeing made. These fraudulent creditsallowed polluters to continue emittingfrom their local factories. Pollution wasthen concentrated around thesefactories, creating toxic hotspots. Aspolluting industries in the USA aredisproportionately located in lowincomeareas and communities ofcolour 7 , the trade in pollution createdan uneven benefit in air qualitybetween peoples. In this case Rule1610 allowed the continued pollutionof the local Hispanic communitiesaround factories involved in thescheme.factories whose owners are busybuying and selling carbon credits,instead of simply reducing theiremissions where it is produced. Withthe introduction of emissions tradingglobally, environmental injustices willbe exacerbated on an unprecedentedscale.Weak pollution zoning restrictions andother cheap production costs such asland and labour are all reasons whyfactories locate in communities withlow incomes and/or of colour. Thistrend is seen in other rich northerncountries as well as the USA. In theUK, low-income communities are twiceas likely to have a polluting factorylocated nearby. 8 It is likely that thisphenomenon will be seen ingreenhouse gas trading, as credits canbe generated from FlexibleMechanisms. Reductions will notneed to take place at their source,allowing factories to continue pollutinglocally. If the credits had beengenerated legitimately, the entireregion would have benefited from thecar-scrapping scheme. Howeverlocalised air pollution in the Hispanicareas around the factories would nothave been reduced, thereby causinguneven improvements in air quality. 9One defence of greenhouse gastrading is that the gases involved areglobal pollutants and therefore do nothave a localised toxic effect. Howevergreenhouse gases are not produced inisolation. The industrial processes thatproduce them also produce toxic copollutants.These toxic co-pollutantswill continue to flow into the air, waterand land of communities living around6