Investigations
I was the project coordinator of an international investigation.
We published, in two major newspapers in France (Le Monde) and in Spain (El Diario) a series of articles about how cement and siderurgy companies used free allowances to generate profits on the carbon market, without investing it on climate. We collected testimonies of several actors (industries, NGOs, traders, political leaders, union traders, etc.), including confidential ones. We also exploited a database of 2 million transactions. The investigation was published in two series of articles.
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I initiated the project, raised the funds for the investigation and obtained a grant from the non profit organisation IJ4EU (approximately 20 000 euros), hired 3 journalists (included one datajournalist), and took in charge the organisation (money, meetings, partnerships, etc.). We worked on the project during a period of 8 months.
Le Monde : How Europe's polluting industries turned free COâ‚‚ quotas into a market worth billions
At a time when the European Union is stepping up its decarbonization targets for 2030, cement and steel manufacturers have used the EU aid system to boost their profits.
Le Monde : The debacle of Europe's first major carbon market, the Emissions Trading System
This second part of our investigation into the European free quota system, which began in 2005 and is due to expire in 2034, reveals that the system has proved ineffective overall in encouraging the cement and steel industries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Las empresas más contaminantes se embolsaron millones a cambio de nada: ni más empleo ni menos CO2 a la atmósfera
The EU quota system has proven ineffective in incentivizing the cement and steel industry to adapt to climate change, and has also failed to maintain the jobs that companies threatened to eliminate if taxes were created.
El Diario: Derecho a contaminar: cómo una medida medioambiental se convirtió en un fiasco de miles de millones de euros
An exclusive investigation by elDiario.es and Le Monde reveals how, since 2005, cement and steel manufacturers in Spain and France have taken advantage of the CO2 emission quotas allocated to them free of charge by the EU to resell them and increase their financial profits.
Le Monde : L’intense lobbying des industriels pour maintenir les quotas de COâ‚‚ gratuits
Leaders and former employees of NGOs testify to the pressure exerted by COâ‚‚-emitting industrialists on MEPs to renew the "rights to pollute" scheme.
Las empresas españolas que llevan años haciendo negocio con las cuotas de emisiones que la UE les da gratis
CO2 release permits, designed to reduce greenhouse gases in the long term, have become a real market in which cement and metallurgical companies such as Portland Cement or Arcelor Mittal have made profits of hundreds of millions of euros.
