This workshop will examine how Carbon Trading works and look at case studies of neocolonial carbon-offsetting development projects such as bio-fuel and tree plantations in the Global South. We will also facilitate a group discussion on just solutions and strategies to stop climate change outside of the neocolonial model.

We’ll be a panel of 5 individuals, and will be using a PowerPoint slideshow and interactive theatre. Our presentation will be in English, although we’ll have handouts in English and Spanish.
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Background:
In recent years global warming has progressed from a fringe issue watched only by a handful of scientists, environmentalists, and social justice activists, to what even politicians are calling the most pressing issue of our time. In recent years the powerful elite have come to realize that climate change threatens the survival of the entire human species, including the rich. That even the political establishment is waking to the crisis is evidenced by bills in the Senate, co-sponsored by both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. These bills (at least on paper) mandate an 80% reduction in the use of fossil fuels within the next 4 decades. Remarkably, these seemingly ambitious ecological initiatives are supported by many of the most powerful corporations in the US, such as DuPont, BP, Duke Energy, and Caterpillar.

There is no question that addressing climate change will require sweeping changes to the global economy. With the Global North being overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis, the Northern elite and their allies are faced with an enormous challenge: how to defend power and privilege in the face of catastrophic climatic change and the rapid changes required to stop it? With imminent restrictions on atmospheric pollution from use of oil, coal, and natural gas, the question quickly arises: who has rights to pollute the atmosphere, and who does not?

Carbon Trading was the “solution” proposed to address the climate crisis by neoliberal economists during the 1990’s. This little known, poorly understood and even more poorly tested idea was subsequently enshrined in international law through the Kyoto Protocol. It is now set for expansion by orders of magnitude both in US law and abroad, forming the very basis of Northern countries’ strategy for stopping global warming.

Under this market based regime, you can purchase the rights to a ton of atmospheric carbon. Not surprisingly an ever-increasing portion of the atmosphere is being privatized and permitted to companies within the energy industry within the Global North. Crucially, under this system “carbon-rich” Northern Countries and corporations need not reduce their pollution in their slice of the atmosphere: they can instead opt to purchase “carbon neutralization” initiatives known as Clean Development Mechanism projects, located exclusively in the “carbon-poor” Global South. As often as not these “ecologically friendly” (and profitable) projects are administered by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and follow a familiar neocolonial development model: pushing people from the land to urban centers and privatizing critical infrastructure in the hands of foreign companies located in the Global North.

With the scale and number of these projects increasing dramatically in the past decade, and slated to skyrocket in the coming years, Carbon Trading has this potential to become one of the singular most important forces in the expansion of corporate globalization. Understanding Carbon Trading is of critical importance to anyone concerned with corporate power, globalization, indigenous peoples’ rights, food sovereignty, and of course stopping catastrophic climate change.