Murder on the Carbon Express: Interpol Takes On Emissions Fraud | Mother Jones

By Mark Schapiro

"The complexity of the carbon markets, which operate with ambiguous oversight, presents an array of new opportunities for fraud, noted Peter Younger, a veteran with Interpol and now in charge of the agency's enforcement of wildlife and forest protection in Africa. 'You're talking about an international financial trade mechanism and the question is still evolving, where does the liability lie? We're still filling in our knowledge gap.' The carbon commodities being traded, he said, are unlike any others: 'You're obtaining not a physical entity or asset but a piece of paper.' Take the rapid growth of interest in tropical forests serving as 'offsets' to companies' carbon emissions. In countries where land ownership is often disputed, the possibility for fraud is considerable, he said. 'In effect, you could be falsifying ownership in something you can see in order to sell something that you can't. And then inserting that into the carbon markets and selling it to people.'"