It's because you're stupid: “Is cap and trade too complicated?” [Warmist Connie Hedegaard] asked. “It might be for the Americans. it’s not for the Chinese.”

Environmental Defense: living up to its name

Environmental groups are playing defense rather than offense in Washington, said Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, during a panel today on climate policy that opened FORTUNE’s Brainstorm Green conference.
...
On climate issues, Fred said: “It’s hard to have a meaningful exchange of viewers, a serious conversation in Washington.”
...
I moderated the panel on climate policy that included Fred, Jim Rogers, the ceo of Duke Energy, Connie Hedegaard, the EU commissioner for climate and Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute. It was, unfortunately, a little grim. All of the panelists agreed that despite nearly 20 years of talk at the highest levels of government and business about global warming, global carbon emissions continue to grow. They’re up by 40%, roughly, since 1990. Neither China nor the U.S has agreed to put a cap on emissions or tax fossil fuels.
...
Hedegaard noted that the EU is going forward with cap-and-trade — a regulatory scheme in which governments set a declining cap for carbon emissions, and then auction or give away permits to pollute, which can then be traded among companies — and that its market could soon be linked to others. She was on her way to a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown of California to talk about linking California’s cap-and-trade regime to the one in Europe and to another under development in China. “Is cap and trade too complicated?” she asked. “It might be for the Americans. it’s not for the Chinese.”
...I had a brief chat about this at Brainstorm Green with the rarest of creatures, a moderate Republican–Theodore Roosevelt IV–and I hope to address that questions soon.