Original sentence: Although many economists advocate carbon trading schemes, some others favor a carbon tax instead.Critics instead advocate for auctioning the credits.Some cap and trade systems pass the quota rent to business though grandfathering (a certain number of credits are given away for free rather than auctioned).The proceeds could be used for research and development of sustainable technology
Edited sentence: A mistake may also be made by giving away emission credits rather than auctioning them.Although many economists advocate carbon trading schemes, some others point out their disadvantages compared to emission taxes.Cap and trade systems tend to pass the quota rent to business.Despite the criticisms and disadvantages, emission cap and permit trading systems are seen to be more politically feasible than emission taxes and are being adopted in various jurisdictions around the world.Emission credits are, in effect, money and therefore should be treated as such.Indeed, some would argue that any policy that contains the word 'tax' is a political taboo.Many environmental activists and foundations consider Al Gore's strong advocation of carbon trading to be a denial of the imminence of climate change and a formalized failure of international policy to address the gravity of the carbon increase.Nevertheless, the transfer of wealth from polluters to non-polluters provides incentives for polluting firms to change, especially if the market price for pollution credits is very high.One explanation for their attractiveness could be that the cost increases are not as directly apparent to consumers as they are with a tax.The giving away of emission credits may also have the negative result of turning down investment dollars that might have been spent on sustainable technologies, if the government chooses to.The problem of passing quota rents to businesses is a political one, and can also be avoided by auctioning permits instead of giving them away, but government may be compelled to give them away in order to make the scheme politically acceptable.Tight controls are necessary in order to establish a reverse commodity market like the voluntary Green Tags