The Sky is Not the Limit: - Carbon Trade Watch

market rhetoric begins to clear.Emissions trading is bad for peopleand the planet. It is the child of aneconomic system that has wreakedhavoc on ecosystems andcommunities across the globe. Butinstead of learning the lessons from adisastrous history of imposing onesize-fits-all,top-down policies,emissions trading exemplifies thatapproach, closing off the space fromwhich grassroots bottom-up solutionscould emerge.The only instance where an emissionstrading scheme could work, for morethan the free-market economicsystem, is if it were small, highlyregulated, tightly defined, had no copollutantsside effects, had rigorousindependent monitoring andverification and vibrant communityconsultation, participation andassessment. However these are notfeatures of any emissions tradingsystem currently functioning orplanned for the future. Anotherinescapable reality of emissionstrading is that toxic co-pollutants areinherent in the production of mostemissions of local and globalpollutants. Therefore in no imaginablereality, could emissions trading ‘work’for people and the planet.In answer to those criticisms,greenhouse gas emissions tradingproponents, and moderate critics,claim that the market is a transitionalsolution to give governments andcorporations time to make the realchanges that are needed. Howevermajor oil corporations such as BP andShell, both enthusiastic initiators ofinternal trading schemes, have nevervoiced any serious intention to curbtheir main activities of oil exploration orproduction in the future. In fact, at thesame time as the company claimreductions in emissions internally, BPpredicts that it will increase future oiland gas output by 3 per centannually. 3 This will take their totalemissions over that of the UK.Furthermore, BP’s investment inrenewable energy is a mere 1 per centof the US $8 billion it spends on fossilfuel exploration and production everyyear. 4Corporations, motivated by profit, willnot voluntarily cease damaging theplanet and destabilising the climate ifthat practice provides the main sourceof their income. Emissions tradingallows big corporations to dodge theirresponsibilities, by gaming a systemthey helped design and makingsuperficial changes in their behaviourwhile continuing harmful ‘business asusual’ practices. Resistance tocorporate power is in danger of beingdistracted by engagement withemissions markets. Many NGOs willtake up their role as verifiers andmonitors, ultimately resulting indivisions between those for andagainst emissions trading. Thewoefully inadequate regulation ofemissions markets ensures that it willbe difficult and time-consuming tocheck the veracity of corporations’claims that they have reduced theirpollution levels. Meanwhile it will betragically clear how much theiremissions have increased throughcontinuing to invest in fossil-fuelprojects, which often result in grossabuse of human rights, such as theBaku-Ceyhan pipeline project, and thefurther destruction of pristineecosystems like the soon-to-beexploited Arctic.A first giant step backwardsThe market in greenhouse gasesunder the Kyoto Protocol signals ahistoric proliferation of the free-marketprinciple into the environmentalsphere. It will be the first global tradein emissions and sets a disturbingprecedent. The stage has now beenset for the further encroachment offree-market environmentalism intointernational decision-makingprocesses.Environmental agreements are nowbeing transformed into economic40