I see this time and time again in the financial planning industry that is my bread and butter. The whole sub prime debacle and the near collapse of the credit markets is directly attributed to meeting arbitrary short-term financial goals and loosing the long-term point of the exercise.

I view the government initiative as an opportunistic co-opting of an incredibly important call to fundamental cultural change that is gaining grass roots momentum and threatening vested political and economic interests. And when the lip service was no longer enough, their solution is an inadequate set of outdated financial dis-incentives that downloads the cost to those who don’t really have the political power to fight them – ultimately students and the quality of their education.

Industry will just buy up the carbon credits, the way they often choose to pay the fine rather than actually clean up their act.

I enjoyed the read – but remain cynical about the current initiative.