Patrick Bond

Selected publications:

Trouble in the Air

Recent content by Patrick Bond

Durban's Climate Zombie tripped (12 Jan 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 (30 Aug 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 (2 Aug 2011)

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 (29 Jun 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 (15 Jun 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 (8 Jun 2011)

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? (2 Jun 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 (12 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 (28 Apr 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 (17 Mar 2011)

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