Dr Michael John Schmidt: We’re Copping It – Climate Fraud

About a week ago, I wrote an article called Who’s Copping It, highlighting how New Zealand is allocating $235 million NZD to COP initiatives, supposedly to fight climate change. This amount is expected to triple after 2026 due to a COP29 agreement. I criticised the celebration of this agreement for several reasons:

1. New Zealand cannot afford this level of spending especially when, proportionately, it exceeds contributions from some wealthier economies.
2. The strategies in place are failing to achieve COP goals.
3. Funds are being directed to corrupt countries that are still increasing their carbon footprint, e.g. India and China.
4. This money could be better utilised on domestic projects to both benefit New Zealand and achieve our climate objectives.

I shared my analysis with every coalition politician, but none responded, despite the fact that my arguments are fact based and address the waste of hundreds of millions of NZ taxpayers’ dollars.

I also sent my findings to New Zealand’s leading media outlets, but, once again, I was met with silence.

• The only publication to print my article was the Good Oil – thank you.(1)

What has happened since?

Within a week of my article being published, a major scandal has emerged in Germany – one that remains largely unreported and completely vindicates my criticisms.

Investigations by Deutsche Welle and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen uncovered a billion-euro fraud involving carbon credits. German authorities had approved several climate projects in China, only to discover that these projects were orchestrated frauds by a Chinese shell company based in Hong Kong.

These projects, which were supposed to save millions of tons of carbon emissions, were shams. Yet, carbon credits worth approximately €1 billion were issued by the German Environment Agency and used by major companies like Shell, Exxon, Total and BP to meet their climate targets.(2,3)

This scandal highlights the corruption and inefficiency in the current system – and to think that some of these corrupt countries may have tripled their receipts through the recent COP29 agreements.

The concept of ‘carbon credits’ is fundamentally flawed, unreliable and not ‘fit for purpose’. Our politicians are revealed as naïve virtue signallers, unable to negotiate effectively or hold other COP members accountable for their programmes.

Just as the US withdrew from the Paris Accord in 2016, and may do so again in 2025, New Zealand should also abandon the agreement and its COP financial commitments.

• This doesn’t mean abandoning our resolutions but rather adopting a more realistic, pragmatic approach.

We should take national responsibility for managing our carbon emissions, focusing on solutions that work for us, rather than trusting unreliable strategies or sham compliance from others.

Above all, we should keep taxpayers’ money at home, allocating it based on effectiveness and closely tracking the results and crediting those results to our own compliance targets.

References:

1. https://goodoil.news/from-the-desk-of-a-male-pale-and-stale-43/
2. https://www.dw.com/en/chinese-firm-ran-extensive-carbon-credit-scam/video-71022367?form=MG0AV3
3. https://www.dw.com/en/how-a-chinese-firm-ran-a-billion-euro-carbon-credit-scam/a-71010148?form=MG0AV3

Dr Michael John Schmidt left NZ after completing postgraduate studies at Otago University (BSc, MSc) in molecular biology, virology, and immunology to work in research on human genetics in Australia. Returning to NZ has worked in business development for biotech and pharmacy retail companies and became a member of the NZ Institute of Directors. This article was first published HERE