It's day four of the UN Climate Convention and the air is heavy with humidity. Even the rooms in the conference facilities where people are clustered around computers seem like saunas, an appropriate thing, I suppose---reminding us not only of where we are, in tropical Bali, but also of why we're here. The world has a fever, and we're here to begin to bring the temperature down, before it's too late. The question is, will we let deliver the goods, or have things been set in motion, structurally to make such a breakthrough impossible? The UN website for the Climate Convention gives an upbeat tone to the meetings here. However, behind the PR, there are divisions that are apparent, not just between North and South, the G77 and the EU, the "umbrella group" of Japan, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world, but also between and among NGOs. When money is on the table, there can be plenty to fight about. And right now there is a lot of money being dangled before governments---and NGOs---that comes with a catch: Accept carbon trading as /the/ deal, or get nothing at all. Even so-called adaptation funding, arguably the largest piece of the pie, if done correctly, is being proffered to cash-poor countries---but only as a percentage of the carbon trading budget. The message: Accept carbon trading or your poor will starve. Not surpringly, many governments are jumping on board this offer. Too many developing countries are still suffering the legacy of indebtedness and poverty to Northern institutions like the World Bank and IMF, staggering debt set in motion by the high oil prices of the 1970s to have much of a choice in the matter. If it means pledging to protect their forests and treat them as carbon offsets to allow the North to continue to to pollute, so be it. And then there is the question of bribery. While no one can be certain how much money has infected the political process in developing countries, there are indications that deals that are being structured here in Indonesia involve serious insider dealing with carbon traders, deals that place billions of dollars on the table. Surely, once the deals are sealed, there's enough to share with a few choice decision-makers. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly to long-term observers of the climate debate, this attitude has infected many NGOs as well. Environmental NGOs are eager for more cash to help them protect a rainforest here or save an endangered species there. And NGOs that work on hunger or disaster relief are equally eager to get more revenue for their efforts. Those who are skeptical of the conditions placed on this cash are largely outside the NGO circles that have dominated this process thus far. To be fair, those working on this issue for years have seen the debate shift from regulatory measures being shot down in favor of market mechanisms, in order to get the largest emitter, the U.S., on board. Recognizing that time is running short, they feel there is not time to go back and rethink the whole concept. They are wedded to a process that they now have pushed their governments to accept, and are reluctant to reconsider. Perhaps because time is indeed running out and so few alternatives are making it on the formal table, or perhaps because to do so would be to lose face, they continue, full steam ahead, ignoring the concrete results that signal failure, corruption, and, worst of all, an /increase/ in greenhouse gases under carbon trading regimes. But here's the deal: Carbon trading is not some innocent attempt at climate stability. It is the corporate, neoliberal agenda, writ large. Countries that are already on the treadmill of debt will become even more beholden to the institutions that have so successfully advanced the corporate agenda via the World Bank, the WTO, and other agents of hegemony. What, then, is to be done? I suggest there are at least six critical components in a strategy that might actually turn the tables on this dominant "solution" to the climate crisis. But they will not come from the environmental groups, at least not from most of those that are represented here at the climate negotiations, nor from the governments themselves. First, name the problem: We have been hoodwinked. Just as the sub-prime mortgage crisis was entirely predictable by the average realtor, and yet was allowed to unfold, this buying and selling of carbon permits is clearly headed for a meltdown, and we need to face up to it. Second, reestablish sovereignty. Carbon trading, as a neoliberal tool, strips governments of their regulatory authority and hands that power over to outside actors---either the carbon traders themselves or so-called carbon auditors who cannot be made accountable to the people. Sovereignty must be restored and reinforced in countries around the world if we are to truly get a handle on this problem. Third: Make transparency central to any climate solutions. Carbon trading thrives on secrecy. In the world of carbon markets, as in the world of markets everywhere if left unchecked, business confidentiality trumps the public right to know. The public right to know, in this case, is not about a toxin here or an offset there: It's about whether or not our planet is in safe hands. Do we simply /trust /Halliburton when they say they are capturing a billion tons of CO2 from their oil fields? Can we /trust/ governments to not be bribed by the waste disposal indsutry around the quantity of methane being captured from their landfills? There can be no integrity without transparency. Fourth: Bring solidarity into the climate discussions, and don't relegate it to some relic of a bygone era. Carbon trading pits communities in the North against communities in the South. Excess pollution is being allowed in inner cities and other poor communities in the North in exchange for tree-planting programs or methane capture in the South. Within developing countries, these trades often divide the rich against the poor, the plantation owners against the poor farmers. By accepting carbon trading as inevitable, communities are essentially turning their backs on the basic rights of communities, North and South to clean air, clean water, and food. Fifth: Follow the money. There is absolutely no reason why we should now invest taxpayer dollars in the very oil, gas and coal companies that are driving climate change. Not when scientists tell us we have 7 years to turn this ship around. Institutions like the World Bank, Ex-Im, JBIC, the EIB and others must cease financing fossil fuels, and do it yesterday. Private finance will follow suit once the deep pockets of these public institutions are no longer sending the signal that such investment is acceptable. Finally, work for debt cancellation. The climate crisis is in many ways driven by debt. Debt forces countries to remove barriers to free trade. It forces them to roll back regulations that protect their forests. It forces them to extract oil, gas and coal for export or to accept outsourcing of energy-intensive industries to their shores more readily than they would otherwise do. And it gives developing countries little choice but to get on the carbon trading bandwagon, further expanding foreign control over their resources. These all have climate consequences. Thankfully, the debt cancellation movement is here in Bali. Most of the activists have not been able to access the negotiations, and many are bewildered by the mind-numbing array of acronyms that greet them upon their arrival at the UNFCCC. They imagine, as do the rest of the uninformed public, that the "experts" have things under control. But, just as in the Wizard of Oz, the grand and powerful Oz is finally being revealed as the fraud he is by the one seemingly most ignorant of his majesty: a small dog, barking and wagging his tail. Those with fresh eyes and little experience would do well to trust their instincts and not be turned away out of intimidation. The solutions are simple: Do everything possible to keep the oil, gas and coal in the ground. Stop decimating our forests. Provide money for countries and workers within those countries to transition toward clean technologies and to help them build their economies around a green economy. Don't turn your back on the poor who are already facing surging tides, drought, and crop failure, and will need billions of dollars, if not outright resettlement to wealthy countries in order to survive. If we stay focused on these fundamentals---and not on the false solutions of carbon trading---we may just see a breakthrough. Perhaps not here in Bali, but then again, these things can only happen on the ground, in all of our countries and communities, around the world. Let's get on with it.