Climate Change and the Privatisation of the Atmosphere

Climate Change and the Privatisation of the Atmosphere
Seminar on Environmental Justice and Carbon Trading in the Kyoto Protocol
TNI Office, Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 14h00-16h00

The next climate change talks are fast approaching in Montreal in December. This seminar is a key moment to critically analyse the progress of the Kyoto mechanisms and debate the impacts of carbon trading. The key question is this: does "carbon trading" - alleged by critics as the privatisation of environmental problem-solving - result in a just and sustainable future for all? If not, then this is a chance to build networks in the Netherlands on these issues and connect to struggles globally.

Part 1: Video Letters from the Frontline of Carbon Trading
By Heidi Bachram, TNI

In the 2002 list of the ten worst polluters in Scotland, the BP Oil & Chemical
Refinery in Grangemouth is cited 4 times. As the community struggles with the local pollution caused by this complex, BP is buying credits to "offset" this pollution via the World Bank. Local people will see no benefit of this trading scheme as their situation worsens or remains the same due to BP’s purchase of credits that allows them to continue their polluting practices. In Brazil, local people living around a monoculture eucalyptus plantation are suffering from lack of access to farming land, pesticide pollution and decreasing water resources. The World Bank will now provide a subsidy to plant even more eucalyptus trees as "carbon sinks", generating credits which BP then buys to "offset" its own pollution in places such as Grangemouth. Both communities are linked together by existing environmental and social injustices being perpetuated by carbon trading. In 2005 members of both communities made their own video letters telling their personal stories of living with the impacts of carbon trading. These short films demonstrate powerfully the destructive nature of the trade in pollution from both ends of the marketplace, told in the images and words of the people most affected.

Part 2: Carbon Trading In South Africa And The Netherlands
By Graham Erion, Visiting Scholar, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Centre for Civil Society, South Africa

The development of the South African carbon market has been supported by the Netherlands government and Amsterdam-based businesses. As the largest investor in the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) and the single largest purchaser of emission reduction credits worldwide (16% market-share), the Netherlands has profoundly shaped the global carbon market. There is perhaps no place where this is more apparent than South Africa. The Dutch government has been deeply involved in establishing governance structures around the CDM in South Africa, funding environmental NGOs to develop projects, and supporting carbon trading directly through the PCF. Moreover, private businesses in the Netherlands such as Ecosecurities and NuPlanet Energy have been involved in project development
across the country. The impact of these projects on local communities has sometimes been disastrous. The extraordinary ability of South African carbon market critics to halt destructive projects, and in the process to contribute to the global struggle against climate change, is inspiring and deserves much wider attention.

Part 3: Questions & Discussion