The Sky is Not the Limit: - Carbon Trade Watch

2.6 Sinking the ProtocolBonn 2001: After the climatenegotiations came to a standstill atCOP6 in Den Haag in 2000, dramaticpolitical events such as the USrejection of the Kyoto Protocol andsubsequent compromise dealsfundamentally undermined reductiontargets. The departure of the USpushed the Protocol to the edge. COP-6.5 in Bonn the following year wasintended to save the Kyoto Protocol.The overwhelming majority ofgovernments and NGOs rushed tocompromise, in the hope of keepingsceptical governments on board andtrying to win the US back. Weakenedrules in the Bonn agreement,combined with the departure of theUS, mean emissions reductions mayonly be 0.1 per cent of 1990 levels forthe rich industrialised countries. 1Negotiating positions developed overmany years were dropped in Bonn.One of the most important was theproposed cap on emissions trading, toprevent countries from achieving 100per cent of their targets abroad. TheKyoto Protocol stated that tradingshould be supplementary to reducingemissions directly at source. However,what ‘supplementary’ meant had notbeen quantified. A cap would definethat and the EU had been arguing fora 50 per cent limit on trading. TheBonn agreement only made arecommendation that “domestic actionshall thus constitute a significantelement of the effort.” This was despiteprotest against emissions trading andarguments that carbon trading wouldbe a new form of colonialism. 2 Theonly potential environmental ‘win’ wastext in the agreement that countriesshould ‘refrain from using nuclearpower’ in emissions trading projects.However long discussions on sinkscame to a bitter end and they are nowpresent in the CDM.Carbon SinksSinks refers to the use of trees, soilsand oceans to absorb carbon dioxidefrom the atmosphere. While thescience of sinks is still uncertain,there is a broad consensus that anypotential storage of carbon istemporary as trees naturally live outtheir life cycles or are felled and theresultant carbon is ultimatelyreturned to the atmosphere. Manyenvironmentalists and indigenouscommunities around the world fearthat use of sinks will have anegligible impact on reducing globalwarming while having an enormousimpact on people worldwide as poorcountries, desperate to earn moneyto pay back debts, look to sellingtheir lands and forests for the carbonmarkets.Projects in countries such as Ugandaand Ecuador have already led tothousands of local communitiesdependant on forest areas beingforced off their land as privateNorthern corporations backed bytheir governments, engage in aworldwide land-grab at wholesaleprices. The logic of these carbon‘offsets’ ensure that Northerncountries can continue to emitdisproportionate amounts ofgreenhouse gases. This corporateoffset culture magnifies inequalitiesbetween the haves and have-nots asthe South becomes the carbon dumpfor the over-consuming North. Thethreat to indigenous peoples andpeasant communities is especiallysevere, as destruction and/or loss ofaccess to forests for many peopleswould destroy their livelihood. TheFirst International Forum OfIndigenous Peoples on ClimateChange stated “sinks in the CDMwould constitute a worldwide strategyfor expropriating our lands.” 318