One of the major problems with the Koyoto agreement is that CO2-pollution now can be traded between power companies and countries. A direct consequence for me as a consumer who wants lower my households emissions is that my spared emissions is a product that my regional coal based power supplier owns!

In the old days before Koyoto I could save CO2 by remembering to turn the lights off and buy low power consuming products. But not anymore. Every time I save a bit CO2, that amount goes into the calculations that shows how much CO2 Danish companies can sell on the world market. The more CO2 -quotas that are available on the market the cheaper it is for power plants to buy the right to keep on burning coal.

At the moment the Danish Minister of Environment is running a campaign to make people take a personal responsibility. Again and again it is mentioned that we should be concerned about our use of power and turn off stand by devices etc. but the fact is that it has absolutely no influence on the CO2-emisisons. Instead we are making the (coal burning power companies) richer and fulfilling our ministers political project of lowering Denmark’s total emissions. But what does it really matter if the quotas just are sold to Germany?
Actually we would be better off with a greater individual approach and no Koyoto protocol at all. Koyoto is a mistake because it eliminates the personal responsibility and makes environmentalism and passion for the wellbeing of the planet a good that can bought and sold on a market place.

One more wind generator here means more CO2 emitted somewhere else.