European Parliament Vote Leaves Carbon Trading System in Shambles by Bill Sweet Abrupt role reversals are nothing new to the field of behavioral psychology: In a marriage, from one moment to the next, one spouse stops being the perpetual nag and critic to assume the part of lazy laggard, while the other goes from laid-back to laying it on. Evidently the picture is not much different in international affairs. During the decade following the adoption at Rio de Janeiro of the U.N.’s 1992 Convention on Climate Change, the Europeans took the global lead in cutting greenhouse emissions. But then, midway through George W. Bush’s administration, the balance of action reversed. The latest manifestation of the inverted picture was the decision last week by the European Parliament to not shore up the price of carbon emission permits in the EU’s deathly ill Emissions [carbon] Trading System. Read morehttp://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/policy/european-parliament-vote-leaves-carbon-trading-system-in-shambles