In recent months, multiple carbon fraud arrests have been made across Europe in a European Union (EU) wide investigation into tax evasions and money laundering in carbon trading.

According to Europol – Europe’s police agency, fraudulent trading in EU carbon emissions credits has led to more than 5 billion euros ($6.66 billion) in tax revenue losses for numerous EU nations.

Carbon fraudulence occurs when buyers import value-added tax (VAT) free carbon emissions permits from one state to another, sell the permits and then disappear with the VAT collected as part of the sale.

More complicated carbon fraudulence, ‘carousel fraud,’ also occurs where imported permits are sold through a series of companies and then exported. Raids and arrests have been carried out in Germany, Britain, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Cyprus.

In April, Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs had arrested 21 people after searching 81 sites, while German prosecutors made three arrests after searching more than 230 sites.

In March, Spanish police arrested nine people on charges of evading 50 million euros ($67.54 million) in tax linked to carbon credit trading, while Norwegian police charged five men. In January, Belgian authorities charged three men with money laundering.

Investigations have also been executed in the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Finland Portugal, the Czech Republic and Cyprus. The European investigations are led by German prosecutors.

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© 2011 Judge Energy Ltd. All rights reserved.

A group of Chinese environmental NGOs has linked the supply chain of international IT brands to heavy metal poisoning cases in China, reported the Guardian.

Friends of Nature, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and Green Earth Volunteers’ investigation revealed a trail from lead and cadmium contamination cases to foreign companies’ mobile phone battery and computer circuit board production.

The NGOs investigation showed Shanghang Huaqiang Battery – implicated last September in the lead poisoning of 121 children – to have been a manufacturer for Narada Power Source, a supplier for international mobile telecom firms.

“If a brand calls itself environmentally friendly and in favour of sustainable development, they should be concerned if their supply chains violate environment regulations,” asserted Zhang Boju of Friends of Nature.

The NGOs wrote to IT companies about their findings. BT said it would conduct an internal investigation into the allegations. Vodafone stressed its stringent code for ethical purchasing, and their application of the codes to their battery production with Narada.

Earlier this year, Vodafone was ranked number one for demonstrating strong, all-round sustainability leadership, in a rating of the world’s largest information and communications technology (ICT) companies by Tomorrow’s Value Rating – an international sustainability consultancy.

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© 2011 Judge Energy Ltd. All rights reserved.

On 25 October, Spanish manufacturing company Gamesa announced its plans to invest up to 130 million pounds (150 million euros) in the UK’s offshore wind energy industry by 2014.