Organized Crime Blamed for Roiling $110 Billion Carbon Market

Organized criminals are being blamed for stealing European Union pollution permits and sparking a police hunt across the continent, battering confidence in an 80 billion-euro ($110 billion) market.

Thieves who steal carbon dioxide allowances try to sell them before owners know they are gone, according to Nikos Tornikidis, a Czech trader with 700,000 missing permits. Criminals may have exploited “negligent” security standards in some EU nations that participate in the world’s largest system for trading rights to discharge greenhouse gases, Jos Delbeke, director general for climate at the European Commission, said in an interview.