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

Editorial NoteIt is now accepted worldwide that the globe is warming to such an extentthat the livelihoods of large swathes of the world’s population are underserious threat. Violent and frequent storms wreck people’s habitats; unpredictableweather drastically changes conditions for agriculture; newhealth threats emerge. As a result, awareness of global warming is increasinglyinfluencing thinking in both the South and the North.The irony is, however, that some of the responses to the global threatof climate change are likely to cause new and severe problems, which,in a worst-case scenario, could actually increase global warming. Asthis special report shows, this seems to be the case with carbon trading– a grandiose market scheme set up as the world’s primary responseto the crisis of climate change.The main cause of global warming is rapidly increasing carbon dioxideemissions – primarily the result of burning fossil fuels – despiteinternational agreements to reduce such emissions. The trouble is thatdespite being aware of the serious situation, very few decision- makersare ready to tackle the problem at its roots. Instead of reducing theextraction of fossil fuels and searching for other solutions, currentcarbon-trading policies, in practice, favour the further exploitation ofthese fuels. Furthermore, new tree plantations, which are claimed asa means of mitigating the consequences of increased carbon dioxidepollution, often drive people out of their traditional living groundsand destroy biological diversity.This special report forms part of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation’sWhat Next project. It focuses on carbon trading and is intended to influencecurrent climate politics. In the debate on the Kyoto Protocolfew actors have expressed a critical view. It is high time, for the purposesof debate and policy-making, to put the spotlight on the coreproblem – fossil fuel extraction and consumption.This publication, therefore, takes a broad look at several dimensions ofcarbon trading. It analyses the problems arising from the emerging globalcarbon market pertaining to the environment, social justice and humanrights, and investigates climate mitigation alternatives. It provides a shorthistory of carbon trading and discusses a number of ‘lessons unlearned’.Nine case studies from different parts of the world provide examples ofthe outcomes – on the ground – of various carbon ‘offset’ schemes.The publication project has matured over time. It was first discussedin connection with an early Dag Hammarskjöld What Next seminarin July 2001 on ‘Addressing Nanotechnology and Other EmergingTechnologies in the ETC Century’.The editor and main author, Larry Lohmann, who works with TheCorner House – a small research and solidarity organisation located