The Sunday Times has an article by Jonathan Leake that provides some hope that some people are beginning to see that cap-and-trade is, as the headline suggests, fools gold.

Leake hits the nail on the head when he observes:

It sounds good news for everyone: governments, taxpayers, City boys and the environment. The reality is a great deal less rosy – indeed some of those closest to the carbon markets say openly that the system is doomed to failure.

Leake quotes a carbon trading consultant on the fatal flaw of cap-and-trade, reinforcing an argument that we have made here on many occasions (e.g., here in PDF):

“The fatal flaw is . . . the politicians, because they set the cap which determines the supply of CO2 credits . . . The problem is that making those caps tough enough to achieve real cuts in CO2 emissions would have all kinds of political consequences. The chances of any politician taking such a decision are negligible.”