Upsetting the Offset - Transnational Institute

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Towards the Sustainable School: Social Accounts
and Local Solutions
John Fenwick, Jane Gibbon and Ann Marie Sidhu
334
A public life develops only when a society realizes that reciprocity and mutual aid
are worthy of cultivation both as good in themselves and as providing the basis
of the individual self. 1
Introduction
Concerns about climate change and sustainability raise questions around what
can and must be done by society and the individual to ameliorate the damaging
effects of overconsumption of the earth’s resources. It is evident that radical
reductions in carbon emissions are required if we are to avoid dangerous climate
change. 2 Efforts are being made at global and international level to formulate
policy and implement mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions. Unfortunately,
the discourse on climate change and sustainability has privileged business and
economics and our ecosystem has become a subset of the market economy.
Valid perspectives on the environmental crisis such as social equity, ecological
sustainability, ethics and moral belief 3 have unfortunately been largely ignored.
The formation of the emissions trading schemes (ETS) has, by placing a
price on carbon, enabled business to capture the climate change agenda. 4
Research illuminates the extensive issues with mechanisms such as the
European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) and the carbon off setting
schemes. Climate change is a global problem but not all countries subscribe to
the Kyoto Protocol and developing countries are reluctant to restrain economic
growth. The main purpose of the emissions trading scheme is to cost emissions
into production output and motivate emitters to reduce carbon emissions as
they would any other costs. However, there are many flaws with this solution,
and many have already been covered within other chapters of this book.
Companies can meet their emissions commitments without making major
investments in clean technology and a fundamental shift from reliance on fossil
fuels is hampered. At country level, emission targets may be met by using either
or both of the two carbon offsetting mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol, i.e.
Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Under the CDM Northern countries can earn Certified Emission Reducions
(CER’s) from emission reducing projects implemented in developing countries
(Southern countries). Renewable energy projects account for approximately 5%
of the carbon market and empirical evidence highlights that 75% of all carbon