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

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290 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradingDidn’t anybody question whether two people in Washington had the right todecide what the alternative energy future of Durban might be?How? Information dissemination and public consultation on the projectproposal were carried out over the internet, to which only a small minorityof the local community have access. Time allocated for objectionsin late 2004 was a mere 10 days. And few outside the immediatearea were either interested in or aware of what was going on.Meanwhile, Durban officials claimed that without the usd 15 millionprovided by the Prototype Carbon Fund, they would not bothertrying to recover the methane as fuel, since the electricity generatedin the process costs so much more per kilowatt hour than the localpower utility charges for its coal-fired power. 139All right, fair enough. But assuming that’s true, all it proves is that continuedraw methane release and coal-fi red power is a choice that would have a reasonableeconomic rationale, not that it is the only choice that could be made.That’s all that’s required, under the rules, for the project to createcarbon credits.The fence separatingthe dumpsite fromthe surroundingcommunities.All right. But who would buy carbon credits from the dump?All PCF investors get pro rata shares of PFC project credits. These investorsinclude British Petroleum, Mitsubishi, Deutsche Bank, Tokyo ElectricPower, Gaz de France and RaboBank, as well as the governments ofthe Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden and Japan.Is this a good thing for local people who live around the dump?That depends a lot on who you ask.Well, what does the PCF say?The PCF says that improving the ‘financial position of DSW’ wouldalso benefit local people and send a ‘clear signal’ to them that ‘theenvironment is a number-one concern in South Africa and is beingdealt with in the best way possible’.And what does the local community say?Again, that depends on who you ask. But let’s start with Sajida Khan,a member of the Indian community on the border of the dump.Khan, who was diagnosed in 1996 with cancer, and whose nephewdied of leukaemia, had this to say in 2002: ‘To gain the emissionsreductions credits they will keep this site open as long as possible.Which means the abuse will continue as long as possible so they can
offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 291continue getting those emissions reductions credits. To them howmuch money they can get out of this is more important than what effectit has on our lives.’ 140Khan and some other community members see PCF support for themethane project as having thrown a lifeline to the dump. They notethat the PCF’s crediting period for the project is seven years, twice renewable,making a total of 21 years. According to the PCF, ‘becauseof the growing waste generation per capita in the municipality…thereis no plan to close…the Bisasar Road site…during the PCF projectlife.’ To Khan and colleagues, this new lease on life for the dump, togetherwith the PCF claim that Bisasar Road is an ‘environmentallyprogressive…world-class site’ leave a very bitter taste in the mouth.‘[The Prototype CarbonFund is after] a cheapbang for their buck; theybasically just get the lowcost credits…they pillagethe country and don’tcontribute to its sustainabledevelopment.’Sheriene Rosenberg,SouthSouthNorth,South AfricaUnderstandably so. But are there other views?One of the municipality’s top officials responsible for the project,Lindsay Strachan, has little patience with opinions like Khan’s. Becauseprotesters ‘can’t think globally any more,’ he complains, ‘theproject is literally slipping through our fingers.’ 141 Strachan claimsthe city is committed to closing the dump and continuing to extractmethane thereafter, although a carbon project document he helpedwrite states that ‘it is not reasonable’ to expect that the municipalitywould close the dump before it is full, and that no plans exist for constructionof replacement sites. 142But there are more than just two sides to this story. Most of the Africanresidents of the nearby Kennedy Road settlement also support extendingthe life of the dump. For one thing, the dump provides most of theircurrent livelihood. For another, the new World Bank carbon projecthas shrewdly promised to provide jobs and a few local scholar ships. TheBank also pushed DSW to conduct ‘consultative exercises’ in KennedyRoad, which constituted one of the few occasions that the communityhad been officially recognised. Kennedy Road residents could not helpbut contrast that recognition with what they perceive as the BisasarRoad community’s lack of sympathy for their ongoing struggles to securerights to the land they live on so precariously.But presumably the World Bank and DSW are merely trying to divide thelocal Indian and African communities from each other?Kennedy Road activists are no more under any illusions about theagendas of outside agencies than they are in the front line of internationaldebate over climate change. But, as Raj Patel of the localCentre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal observes,when communities have been systematically denied dignity,
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PRESS RELEASEContact:Linda Chiavaro
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ContentsEditorial note 2Chapter 1 I
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editorial note 3in Dorset, UK - poi
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6 development dialogue september 20
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Chapter 2‘Made in the USA’A sho
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Page 333 and 334: ways forward 331‘Tinkering around
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Page 337 and 338: ways forward 335more stringent than
Page 339 and 340: ways forward 337Unlike carbon tradi
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ways forward 341Waiting their Chanc
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ways forward 343ways - many of whic
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ways forward 345energy - loan benef
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ways forward 347From an Open Letter
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ways forward 349be answered in the
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ways forward 351rogated by Indian v
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ways forward 353argue, they’ve he
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ways forward 355‘The US alone acc
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appendix - the durban declaration o
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appendix - the durban declaration o
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A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

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