UN funding two "cash cows"

And environmentalists are complaining about it - which, oddly enough, is a good thing here.

UN report fuels criticism of carbon-cutting scheme
UNITED NATIONS -- European and U.S. environmentalists demanded action Friday after an obscure U.N. advisory panel lent credence to their claims that industrialized nations are wasting billions of dollars on carbon-cutting projects.

The dispute revolves around the validity of some of the largest projects funded by the $2.7 billion U.N.-managed Clean Development Mechanism.

Basically, what is happening here is that the UN is paying companies in developing countries to destroy the chemical HFC-23, a "potent greenhouse gas", under one program of the Kyoto Protocol. Problem here is that the UN is also paying companies to produce another chemical, HCFC-22 under another program geared at "saving the ozone layer", and the production of HCFC-22 results in the by-product of - wait for it - HFC-23! This has been going on for over a decade now. You'd think that someone would have checked to see if there were any conflicts here, but obviously, that didn't happen.

Now, knowing human nature, it is absolutely no surprise to me that these companies have been accepting money to produce one product, while at the same time accepting money to destroy the resulting by-product of the original product. I mean, how many people would say, "No thank you!" to someone who offered them "free money", and lots of it? Not many, that's for sure!

For once, I'm in agreement with environmentalists (oh, the irony of it all!) - this double funding needs to stop!