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

lessons unlearned 89Table 2. Quasi-Privatisation of the Existing Global Carbon Dump by the UKNational Yearly Allocation under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, 2005Industrial Sector(UK Only)Annual Gift ofEmissions Rights(Million Tonnesof CO 2 )Increase/Decreasefrom ActualAverageEmissions1998–2003Fraction of‘Available’World AbovegroundCarbonDump aApprox.AnnualValue at€16/tonneof CO 2bPower Generators 145.3 -6% 1.5-3.0% €2.325bIron and Steel 23.3 +16% 0.2-0.5% 373mRefineries 19.8 +11% 0.2-0.4% 317mOffshore Oil and Gas 19.1 +14% 0.2-0.4% 306mCement 10.7 +18% 0.1-0.2% 171mChemicals 10.1 +12% 0.1-0.2% 162mPulp and Paper 4.7 +18% 0.0-0.1% 75mFood and Drink 3.9 +26% 0.0-0.1% 62mOther Industries 15.1 +16% 0.2-0.3% 242mTotal 252.0 +2% 2.6-5.1% €4.032baFigures in this column are not based on any attempt to estimate the earth’s capacity torecycle transfers of fossil carbon with no remainder, which, even if initial assumptionscould be agreed on, would probably be impossible in technical terms. Rather, they take asa point of reference the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finding that anthropogenicCO 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and flaring must be reduced by 60–80per cent from current levels of 24,533 million metric tonnes/year to achieve eventual stabilizationof CO 2 levels at twice Industrial Revolution levels.bApproximate price in early June 2006. For every tonne of uncompensated-for CO 2 emittedabove the limit, companies face a fine of €40, rising to €100 from 2008 onwards. Columnsmay not add up due to rounding.Sources: UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Carbon Market News.But if emissions caps are ever tightened, companies will need either to makereductions or to pay up, won’t they? And surely eventually it is the biggest polluterswho will lose out at that point, no?Yes, many corporations are sooner or later probably going to have togive something up. But emissions trading encourages them to treatglobal warming not as a social and environmental problem to besolved but as a business and public relations problem to be kept out ofordinary people’s hands and to be managed at the least possible relativefinancial and market loss to themselves. And it gives them themeans to make sure caps are not tightened very much or very swiftly.Far-sighted companies treat the carbon trading as an opportunity togain new property rights, assets and openings for capital accumulation,even if climate change is accelerated in the process.