Patrick Bond

Patrick Bond

Patrich Bond is political economist and activist who directs the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He is the co-editor (with Rehana Dada) of Trouble in the air: Global warming and the privatised atmosphere (TNI/Centre for Civil Society, 2007)

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Selected publications

Trouble in the Air

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Recent content by Patrick Bond

Durban's Climate Zombie tripped

January 2012
Looking back now that the dust has settled, South Africa’s COP17 presidency appears disastrous. This was confirmed not only by Durban’s delayed, diplomatically-decrepit denouement, but by plummeting carbon markets in the days immediately following the conference’s ignoble end.

As COP17 approaches: Dirty Durban’s manual for climate greenwashing

August 2011
Will the host city for the November-December world climate summit, COP17, clean up its act? The launch of Durban's strategy, Towards a Low Carbon City suggests the new municipal leaders are climate greenwashers, disguising high-carbon economic policies with pleasing rhetoric.

Fighting the Minerals-Petroleum-Coal Complex’s Wealth and Woes

August 2011
Corporate Planet:
Ecocide by the "minerals-energy complex" should be faced by a broad-based opposition, focusing on sanctions against neo-colonial exploitation, and international solidarity with the communities affected.

Climate Meetings Have Become Conferences of Polluters

June 2011
Without serious mobilisation, Durban's UN climate conference, ‘COP 17’ (Conference of Parties), looks doomed to be a conference of procrastinators threatening the planet and its peoples.

Africa: Chilling the Arab Spring

June 2011
Isn't the IMF fully aware of the Arab Spring? There is little difference between the strategies it advocates to Arab democrats today then those advocated to Arab dictators yesterday. 

The World Bank's Africa Strategy

June 2011
Regional Alternatives in Africa:
Whose interest does the ten-year Strategy document for Africa actually serve? The World Bank has shown little insight into the real problems Africa faces, focusing instead on ineffective policies, support for repressive regimes and projects that are known to have failed.

Can Democracy Activists Undo US and IMF Damage?

June 2011
Obama's speech on the Middle East and North Africa missed the point of the Arab uprising, and offered little sign of conciliation or support for the Palestinians.

Are African lions really roaring? The Latest Fibs From World Financiers

May 2011
The recent wave of Afro-optimism boasting of economical and technological growth on the continent fails to stand up under closer scrutiny, veiling the harsh reality faced by Africans today.

The banksters and the climate fund

April 2011
The resumé of Trevor Manuel, confirmed co-chair of the Green Climate Fund, gives reason to worry. As South Africa's finance minister, he frequently rewarded transnational corporations at the cost of rising inequality, unemployment and environmental degradation.

When civil-societyism fronts for barbarism

March 2011
The Gaddafis close relationship with the London School of Economics exposes yet another case of institutions selling favours to the rich and powerful.