The state of the global carbon trade debate

Capitalism, Nature, Socialism

Volumn 19, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 89-106

  Bond, Patrick ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ABATEMENT COST; CARBON EMISSION; CLIMATE CHANGE; EMISSION CONTROL; EMISSIONS TRADING; ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS; POLLUTION TAX; TRADE-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONS;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 57649120913     PISSN: 10455752     EISSN: 15483290     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10455750802575810     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. This paper was originally delivered to the final plenary session of the South African Sociological Association annual congress, Stellenbosch, July 10, 2008. Thanks to the CNS editors (especially Joel Kovel) and to participants at the OilWatch/groundWork Africa strategy session in Durban from September 10-13, 2008; the SA Energy Caucus climate debate in Johannesburg, September 10, 2008; and the International Forum on Globalization's "Is Capitalism Soon Over?" workshop, October. 6-8, 2008.
2. Nicholas Kristoff, "The Big Melt," The New York Times, August 16, 2007. Gore repeated the statement in September 2008 at a New York conference called by Bill Clinton, but specified action against coal-fired generators not fitted with carbon capture and storage technology.
3. Earlier reports on the struggle over commodification of the air as a climate change mitigation strategy include the co-edited books with Rehana Dada, Trouble in the Air (Durban: Center for Civil Society and Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2005) and with Dada and Graham Erion, Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society (Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press and Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers, 2007, 2008), and Patrick Bond, "Privatization of the Air Turns Lethal: 'Pay to Pollute' Principle Kills South African Activist Sajida Khan," Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 18, No. 4, 2007, pp. 6-37.
4. World Bank Press Clips, October 15, 2008.
5. As global warming impacts continue to escalate faster than scientists have predicted, increasing numbers sources are saying that the bulk of the reductions must come much sooner than 2050. Some are now saying really only have six to eight years to make radical reductions in carbon emissions. See Geoffrey Lean, "A World Dying, but Can We Unite to Save it?," The Independent (London), November 18, 2007
6. and Mark Lynas, Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2008). Jeremy Rifkin is now using this timetable.
7. Negotiations on climate change took place from June 2-13, 2008, in Bonn, Germany, which held the session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
8. "Progress Falters on Road Map to New Climate Deal," Agence France Press, June 13, 2008.
9. 2 Emissions," February 2008, online at: www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/89xx/doc8934/02-12-Carbon.pdf.
10. Ibid.
11. EcoEquity statement on Greenhouse Development Rights, online at: http://www.ecoequity.org/GDRs/, accessed 10-18-08.
12. The Clean Development Mechanism is a provision in the Kyoto Protocol that permits industrialized countries that are legally required under the treaty to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (Annex 1 countries) by investing in projects in developing countries that are supposed to reduce emissions. See: http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/mechanisms/ clean_development_mechanism/items/2718.php.
13. Joint implementation is similar to CDM except that the JI projects refer to those in the so-called Annex B "economies in transition," Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Ukraine. Currently Russia and the Ukraine are slated to host the greatest number of JI projects. See: http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/ mechanisms/joint_implementation/items/1674.php.
14. Jutta Kill, "Lessons from the European Emissions Trading Scheme," FERN and Sinkswatch, September 28, 2007, online at: www.sinkswatch.org/pubs/2007%2009%20Lessons%20from%20the%20 European%20Emissions%20Trading%20Scheme%20_2_.pdf. According to Kill, some of these problems could be mitigated by a cap-and-auction but with a prohibition on both trading and offsets, and with renewable energy fed into the national grid thanks to minimum price guarantees so as to ensure new investments. But to do so would require phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies and utilizing energy efficiencies fully.
15. Andre Gorz, Strategy for Labor (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967)
16. A. Gorz, Socialism and Revolution (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1973).
17. R. Butler, "55% of the Amazon may be Lost by 2030. But Carbon-for-conservation Initiatives Could Slow Deforestation," mongabay.com, January 23, 2008.
18. Organizations that endorse this statement: Indigenous Environmental Network, CORE Manipur, Federation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Asia, Na Koa Ikuiku Kalahui Hawaii, Indigenous World Association, CAPAJ- Parlamento del Pueblo Qollana, International Indian Treaty Council, Amazon Alliance, COICA, Instituto Indigena Brasileno para la Poropiedad Intelctual, The Haudenosaunee Delegation, Agence Kanak de Developpement, Mary Simat-MAWEED, Marcos Terena-Comite Intertribal-ITC-Brasil, Land is Life, ARPISC- Peru Amazonia, Asociaciones de Mujeres Waorani de la Amazonia AMWAE, Kus Kura S.C., Indigenous Network on Economic and Trade, Aguomon FEINE, Friends of the Earth International, Amerindian Peoples Association, FIMI North America, L. Ole L. Lengai-Sinyati Youth Alliance, Beverly Longid-Cordillera Peoples Alliance Philippines, Red de Mujeres Indigenas sobre Biodiversidad de Abgatala, Fundacion para la Promocion de Conocimiento Indigena, Asociacion Indigena Ambiental, INTI-Intercambio Nativa Tradicional Internacional, Global Forest Coalition, Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu, Caf' ek.
19. Patrick Bond, 2007, op. cit.
20. George Monbiot, "The Real Answer to Climate Change is to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground," The Guardian, December 11, 2007.
21. Members of the coalition include Carbon Trade Watch, Transnational Institute; Center for Environmental Concerns; Focus on the Global South; Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines; Friends of the Earth International; Gendercc-Women for Climate Justice, Global Forest Coalition; Global Justice Ecology Project; Indonesia Civil Society Organizations Forum on Climate Justice; International Forum on Globalization; Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment; La Vía Campesina; members of the Durban Group for Climate Justice; Oilwatch; Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition, Aotearoa/New Zealand; Sustainable Energy and Economy Network; The Indigenous Environmental Network; Third World Network; World Rainforest Movement.