A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

280 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradingin the dark, so to speak, is not only a matter of ‘suboptimal’ use oftechnology, but also a deeper pattern of local and global politics. Cuttingfossil fuel use means understanding this deeper pattern.Up to now, climate activists and policy makers have often told eachother that ‘the essential question is not so much what will happen onthe ground, but what will happen in the atmosphere’. 121 The exampleof the PacificCorp/SELCO/Neeyamakola rural solar electrificationproject helps show why this is a false dichotomy. What happens onthe ground in communities affected by carbon projects is importantnot only because of the displacement of the social burdens of climatechange mitigation from the North onto already marginalised groupsin the South. It is also important because what happens on the groundinfluences what happens in the atmosphere.Thailand – Biomass in the service ofthe coal and gas economyBurmaThailandLaosCambodiaThe experience of Sri Lankashows that not all projects that gounder the name of ‘renewable energyschemes’ promote local betterment,foster local autonomy, orhelp in the transition away fromfossil fuels.Other types of ‘renewable en ergy’projects may turn out to be ofequally questionable climatic orsocial value when integrated intothe carbon market as supportsfor a system dominated by fossilMalaysiafuel technologies and corporateexpansion. A good example is a‘biomass energy’ project seeking CDM support in Yala province inThailand’s troubled far south.VietnamThere, an approximately 23-megawatt power plant fuelled by rubberwoodwaste and sawdust is being developed by a diverse group of companieslinked by their interest in the carbon trade. They include:• Gulf Electric, an independent power producer 50 per cent owned