On Oct. 31, two “Greenwash Guerrillas” conducted the first nationally visible protest against carbon trading, a form of “green capitalism,” by disrupting the Carbon Market Insights conference in New York City.
Posing as delegates, the two took the stage, presenting the 700 attendees with a “Deed to the Sky,” and denounced
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Under the Kyoto Protocol, carbon trading is the primary mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon trading is also a major component of Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner’s (R-Va.) “America’s Climate Security Act of 2007.”
“Carbon trading puts the most crucial decisions about the future of life on this planet in the hands of fossil fuel industry,” said protester Jessica Starr “the very industry that got us into this mess in the first place.”
What is carbon trading?
The Lieberman-Warner bill, SB 2191, is expected to pass the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee in November. If this bill becomes law, it would create a system of tradable permits in greenhouse gas emissions, which would be granted to current polluters through 2036. These permits may then be bought and sold for profit in the market.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth has stated that the “Lieberman climate bill may contain the biggest corporate giveaways in American history”, valued at 1.5 trillion dollars.
According to the environmental group, Rising Tide North America, “The European Emissions Trading System established under the Kyoto protocol has generated hundreds of billions of dollars of additional profits for the fossil fuel industry, yet most countries are failing to meet their greenhouse gas emissions reductions.”
“Gifting free, tradable property rights to the worst polluters does little to ensure reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said David Lee, one of the protestors at the Carbon Trading conference. “Carbon trading and the Lieberman bill are a subsidy for big polluters disguised as a climate protection measure.”
The Lieberman Bill would allow the biggest greenhouse gas emitters to “offset” their emissions by paying for carbon reductions projects that take place elsewhere, instead of implementing technologies that would actually reduce greenhouse gases here. The carbon offset projects, often located in developing nations, have been criticized for failure to deliver promised reductions. According to Rising Tide, “These projects have led to the displacement of low-carbon use communities in favor of large scale “clean development” projects including hydroelectric dams and genetically modified tree plantations. In Uganda, villagers have been arrested and even killed after being ousted from their land for tree plantations which they dared to cut down.”
“Carbon offsets do little more than the selling of indulgences by Catholic churches in the 16th century,” said protestor David Lee. “It’s time to get serious about stopping climate change and shut these false solutions down.”
“Green Capitalist” approaches to emissions reductions leave intact the system that created the global warming crisis. Instead of implementing carbon reduction technologies with meaningful enforcement of emissions reduction, carbon trading leaves carbon reduction up to the vagaries of the market.
“Market shares in the new carbon market will be allocated on the basis of who is already the largest polluter and who is fastest to exploit the market. The new “carbocrats” will therefore be the global oil, chemical, and car corporations, and the richest nations; the very groups that created the problem of climate change in the first place,” according to Rising Tide UK.
It is well known among the scientific community that global warming is caused by carbon emissions, which in turn have been created by unchecked capitalist development. Carbon trading creates a system in which capitalist nations can create the appearance of addressing the climate change crisis, while continuing to guarantee profits. Only socialist economic development has the potential to protect the environment because socialism is based on planning rather than on competition.
