European and U.S. environmentalists demanded action Friday after an obscure U.N. advisory panel lent credence to their claims that industrialized nations are wasting billions of dollars on carbon-cutting projects. The dispute revolves around the validity of some of the largest projects funded by the $2.7 billion U.N.-managed Clean Development Mechanism. The "CDM" — a component of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for cutting heat-trapping greenhouse gases — essentially allows industrial nations that are required to cut their greenhouse gases to pay developing nations to cut theirs instead. Governments purchase carbon offset credits generated by the CDM that are regulated mainly under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. The money goes to 22 chemical makers mostly in China and India to destroy a potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23, rather than let it vent into the atmosphere. Other plants are based in South Korea, Argentina and Mexico.

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