London Rising Tide disrupt carbon trading conference
Rising Toad of London | 10.07.2002 12:22
On July 8th & 9th 2002, London's v.ritzy Carlton Tower Hotel hosted a conference on 'Monetising carbon credits in emerging economies' which, when you scrape off the jargon, means 'Making money out of climate change and exploiting some of the world's poorest people into the bargain'.
At 10 am Monday morning 8th July, a small group of environmental activists from London Rising Tide interrupted a hush hush conference for powerful corporate carbon traders, (including the World Bank and Vivendi) at a top Knightsbridge hotel. The conference had been arranged by Environmental Finance, the publication which informs the corporate sector on how to dodge global pollution control laws by buying 'carbon dioxide emission credits' from less industrialised countries, who have not yet used their quotas. This mechanism was created by the sham Kyoto Protocol, in 1997, under pressure from big business lobbyists in the US, who also managed to secure a world wide emission reduction target of only 5 % instead of the 60% that is needed for real affect.
Up to 100 delegates had paid around £1000 for tickets for the exclusive conference, but the group managed to walk easily past door staff into the first floor meeting. Once inside, they showered delegates with detailed leaflets, posing the question 'What about our future?' and asking them to own up that they were only really in it for the money, despite the pious 'We're saving the world' line they take when not talking to eachother. This was despite being shouted down by the speaker, who seemed to think that climate chaos and the need for 60% cuts in emissions was 'boring'!
After the Tiders had been led out with the assistance of hotel security, one delegate from Environmental Finance (EF) came out to talk to the group. Trying to defend the conference and show that he too was concerned about the environment, he stated that he had talked with 'the green movement', which in his mind consists of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and WWF, none of whom has taken issue with carbon trading. 'How can you talk to a movement?' he was asked, to which he had no cogent reply. In actuality, EF's magazine is very aware of opposition from green groups in Europe and the US, carrying regular reports on this. Journalists for the magazine attempt to undermine any non-market based approach to environmental protection, being entirely focused on enabling business to carry on as usual.
For more info on climate change and to take part in Rising Tide campaigns against carbon traders, please go to www.risingtide.org.uk. Environmental Finance's website is www.environmental-finance.com
Up to 100 delegates had paid around £1000 for tickets for the exclusive conference, but the group managed to walk easily past door staff into the first floor meeting. Once inside, they showered delegates with detailed leaflets, posing the question 'What about our future?' and asking them to own up that they were only really in it for the money, despite the pious 'We're saving the world' line they take when not talking to eachother. This was despite being shouted down by the speaker, who seemed to think that climate chaos and the need for 60% cuts in emissions was 'boring'!
After the Tiders had been led out with the assistance of hotel security, one delegate from Environmental Finance (EF) came out to talk to the group. Trying to defend the conference and show that he too was concerned about the environment, he stated that he had talked with 'the green movement', which in his mind consists of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and WWF, none of whom has taken issue with carbon trading. 'How can you talk to a movement?' he was asked, to which he had no cogent reply. In actuality, EF's magazine is very aware of opposition from green groups in Europe and the US, carrying regular reports on this. Journalists for the magazine attempt to undermine any non-market based approach to environmental protection, being entirely focused on enabling business to carry on as usual.
For more info on climate change and to take part in Rising Tide campaigns against carbon traders, please go to www.risingtide.org.uk. Environmental Finance's website is www.environmental-finance.com
Rising Toad of London
e-mail:
shells@gn.apc.org
Homepage:
www.risingtide.org.uk
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The Case against Carbon Trading
11.07.2002 12:59
CARBON TRADING IS CONTRARY TO SOCIAL JUSTICE
THE LARGEST RESOURCE GRAB IN HISTORY: You can't trade in something unless you own it. When governments and companies "trade" in carbon, they establish de facto property rights over the atmosphere. At no point have these property rights been discussed - their ownership is established by stealth with every carbon trade.
THE CARBON TRADE WILL STRENGTHEN EXISTING INEQUALITIES: Shares in the new carbon market will be allocated on the basis of who is already the largest polluter and who is fastest to exploit the market. The new "carbocrats" will therefore be the global oil, chemical and car corporations and the richest nations, the very groups that created the problem of climate change in the first place. What's more, the richest nations and corporations will be able to further increase their global share of emissions by outbidding poorer interests for carbon credits.
SO-CALLED SOLUTIONS POSE A DIRECT THREAT TO VULNERABLE PEOPLES: Development projects such as nuclear energy, large dams and other large-scale, hi-tech projects - as well as tree planting - have come to be known as Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol and are tradable. But they assert foreign ownership of local resources, consolidate the power of undemocratic elites, oust people from their land and undermine local self sufficient economies and low-carbon cultures.
CLIMATE CHANGE REFUGEES: climate change effects such as droughts or flooding, are turning millions into refugees.
ECOLOGICAL DEBT TO 'SOUTH' NOT ADDRESSED: Repayment of the ecological debt of the north to the south, which is caused by the extraction, use and destruction of southern resources such as fossil fuels, minerals, forests, marine and genetic resources, is not acknowledged. Neither is the fact that while a small number of highly industrialised countries have caused the damage, all countries suffer the consequences of climate change.
MANY OF THE SOURCES OF CARBON CREDITS ARE SCAMS
TREE PLANTING IS NOT A SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon absorbed by forests is only removed from the carbon cycle for as long as the tree is standing and alive. Industrial forestry will not 'breathe in' carbon.
CARBON TRADING ALLOWS COMPANIES TO PROFIT FROM MEASURES THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED ANYWAY: Because we cannot know the future, we cannot be certain that a project selling carbon credits has really reduced its emissions further than would have occurred without this intervention. Competition and technical innovation, for example, ensure that industry consistently reduces its energy costs. For example, British Airways, an early supporter of the new UK emissions trading system, is claiming financial credits from the government for the cut in emissions caused by the collapse of its business after September 11th last year, (actually it was in trouble long before S11, and simply used it as a convenient hook on which to hang extensive job cuts…)
"HOT AIR" TRADING IS AN ACCOUNTING FRAUD: Russia's economic collapse since 1990 has reduced its emissions by 30%. Russia is intending to sell this incidental windfall (often called "hot air") as international carbon credits - potentially swamping the market. If countries subsidise their emissions with these Russian credits, the final global emissions will end up being the same as they would have been without a carbon market or a Kyoto protocol.
HUGE INCENTIVES FOR CHEATING: There are strong incentives for cheating and creating bogus credits that do not represent any real reduction in emissions. The seller gets the cash without having to change anything and the buyer gets cheap credits. And what's to stop you transferring polluting activities to areas that are not accounted?
CARBON TRADING CANNOT WORK
THE CARBON MARKET CANNOT BE MONITORED OR CONTROLLED: The temptation for all parties to cheat means that every transaction must be scrutinised and every sale certified. Yet there is no global institution or accounting system that can manage the complexity of this market.
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK WILL NEVER BE STRONG ENOUGH: International legal frameworks are usually very weak. Countries that want to use carbon credits to subsidise their emissions are already arguing for penalties so small they will fail to discourage cheating. The door is open for any country desperate for foreign currency to endorse doctored carbon credits.
NO REAL MODEL EXISTS FOR CARBON TRADING; CO2 is not SO2: The main model for carbon trading is Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emissions trading under the US 1990 Clean Air Act. Yet this programme was small (a few 100 companies), easy to monitor (one pollutant from one source-power generation), had permanent targets and, above all, was conducted within one country with strong enforcement mechanisms.
CO2 is not CFC: The only international emissions trading has been in CFC's under the Montreal Protocol. Once again, the programme was small (only 17 producer companies), easy to monitor (one pollutant from one industrial process) and within a strong legal framework.
CARBON CREDITS FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES ARE NOT EQUIVALENT: The market assumes that carbon credits from different sources will be fully interchangeable. However, carbon sequestered in sinks is an entirely different product from the carbon "saved" by a technical innovation, which is different again from the carbon "saved" by a social or lifestyle change.
THE REAL REASONS FOR CARBON TRADING:
· Governments want to be assured of a cheap way to buy off their failure to meet Kyoto targets that will keep the public and corporations content.
· Brokers, accountants, and financial institutions are extremely excited at the thought of the size of their cut in a new $2.3 trillion speculative market.
· Corporations and other major polluters want "flexible" governments who don't punish them for their emissions and hand over public money to pay for any emissions they are forced to make.
· Oil companies support carbon trading as a way to avoid making any cuts in oil production.
· Academics and financial consultants see rich pickings from becoming "experts" in the new market.
SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE:
· Educate the public on the urgency of climate change and the need for dramatic solutions.
· Set a schedule for cutting global fossil fuel consumption by 60%, and 90% within ten years.
· Recognise the moral (and political) imperative for fairness and social justice by allocating targets to every country on the basis of equal per capita emissions.
· Reduce the supply of fossil fuels with an international ban on all new oil, gas and coal development. As a first step, cut the $200 billion per year global subsidies for coal and oil power. Carbon trading is not concerned with the supply of fossil fuels, which is why oil companies support it. As a result, government subsidies are increasing, reducing the price of energy and swamping any attempts at reducing demand.
· Invest heavily in renewable energy to replace all fossil fuel supplies. Right now funding renewables is a far more expensive way to reduce carbon emissions than credits from bogus "hot air", tree planting, or outright fraud. These cheap carbon credits will dictate the market price.
· Involve all people in the achievement of climate justice - particularly those most affected in the 'global south'.
www.risingtide.org.uk
Mickey Mullarkey
e-mail:
shells@gn.apc.org