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

300 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradingThe Voluntary Market Comes to South AfricaIn 2005, after two years of being unemployed,Sibiongile Mthembu got lucky.Mthembu, 24, a lifelong resident of Guguletu,a sprawling township 20 kilometresfrom Cape Town created under the apartheidera, was recruited off the street by alocal energy consultancy to hand out freeenergy-efficient light bulbs.The consultancy had in turn been commissionedby Climate Care, a British company,to distribute the bulbs. The idea wasthat they would replace the more typicaland wasteful incandescent variety. Afterhaving bought the bulbs (and convincedthe city of Cape Town to pay to distributethem), Climate Care was then in a positionto sell the CO 2 emissions estimated tohave been saved to British consumers andcompanies who want to ‘offset’ their owncarbon emissions.The neighbourhoods where Mthembuwent about his 10-day temporary job werefull of long-standing problems. Houseswere crumbling, with faulty wiring, unpaintedceilings and damp walls. Yet atusd 150 per month, when most residentsearn considerably less – many from jobssuch as selling loose cigarettes and sweets –the rent exceeds what the poor can afford.‘Some people are pensioners,’ explainedPat Mgengi, one resident:‘They don’t even get that amount of moneyevery month. They tried taking people outof the houses and we put them back. Evenafter paying the full amount asked somedon’t have the title deeds. We are going tocourt time and again. We are just trying tolive like any other human being.’In this community, the light bulbs SibiongileMthembu offered around would notordinarily be on anyone’s shopping list. At15 watts, the compact fluorescent bulbs arefar more energy efficient than traditionalhigher-wattage bulbs and last about 10times longer. But they cost usd 2.80 each,as opposed to traditional incandescent bulbsat 50 cents, and are not sold locally.Not surprisingly, Mthembu’s bulbs hadmany takers. Mgengi said he accepted thefour that he was offered simply becausethey were free. ‘We just accept what theyintroduce to us.’But few local people will be able to affordto buy replacements. And when asked byresidents if he would come back to delivermore bulbs if any were broken, Mthembuadmits, he and his fellow light bulb distributorshad to lie. Of the 69 low energybulbs reported as broken from thehouseholds surveyed by Climate Care twomonths after the project started, none hasyet been replaced.Climate Care argues that this project is generatingreal carbon savings, since it wouldnot have gone ahead without the firm’s interventionand is ‘not required by legislation,not common practice (and) not financiallyviable without carbon funding’.However, in the wake of electricity blackouts,power generator Eskom recently decidedto provide five million free energyefficient light bulbs to low-income households,among a host of other energy - savingmeasures. Sibiongile Mthembu is now employeddelivering Eskom’s energy-efficientlight bulbs to 86,000 houses in Guguletu.These are houses that Climate Care missed