Grassroots mobilisation against climate profiteering
As the world waits for the largest international talks ever to be held on climate change – the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), taking place in December this year – controversy rages over the proposed extension of the current EU economic strategy to regulate European emissions, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. While the political and economic stances of the 192 countries sending representation to the summit are being compiled, grassroots groups like the Camp for Climate Action are mobilising: from the level of their local communities to international activist networks.
“Preventing dangerous climate change is essential for global security and prosperity,” reads the first sentence in the introduction to “Global Carbon Trading: A framework for reducing emissions”, a paper that outlines the UK government’s commitment to a reinvigorated cap-and-trade scheme to replace the EU’s ill-fated first foray into this economic framework. Economically developed countries like the UK and the US strongly hold the position that carbon markets are the only way in which the international community can work effectively to first cap emissions, and then proceed to the 85-95% reductions required by 2050 to prevent the “tipping point” of greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere that will topple the world’s climate into an irreparable state of chaos. These market-based strategies, however, are fiercely opposed by anti-capitalist climate activists around the world. The Camp for Climate Action has been working throughout 2009 to target such short-sighted proposals, and argues - alongside other grassroots networks and indigenous groups - that carbon market schemes will only work to exacerbate the greatest humanitarian and environmental catastrophe the world has ever faced. The principles of these objections are that entering into an economic market such as this will only reinforce the ability of industrial sectors to continue engaging in highly-emitting commercial activity, without immediately implementing measures that will wean them off excessive use of fossil fuels. Due to the free allocation of carbon permits, energy companies in Europe’s 5 highest-emitting nations - the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland - have made up to an estimated €71 billion windfall profit. In Germany, issued permits were supposed to cover 97% of the energy sector’s predicted emissions - they were instead allocated 103%; a woeful deviation from the supposed aims of the ETS. Promises to address the issues of the ETS and eliminate inadequacies have not been celebrated by grassroots movements. The character of the move away from ‘Phase One’, led by countries such as the US and the UK, and fiercely resisted by Climate Camp and others, is that of an even deeper engagement with the market forces, seeing the free allocation process replaced by a free market permit bidding system, in which credits will be auctioned off to those most able and willing to pay. Neither has this been greeted warmly by industry: one of the failings of ‘Phase One’ was that proposals to have more permits auctioned off was met by intensive and aggressive lobbying by the industries which would have been hit financially in having to pay for what they would later emit. In the run-up to COP15, this behaviour is still very much in evidence as the chief executive of American Electric Power, Michael Morris, has publicly claimed that Barack Obama’s carbon auctioneering plan is tantamount to a green tax, and that he will actively target 50 US senators in a lobby to have it thrown out of the Senate. Obama’s big plans to attend Copenhagen with this carbon market strategy ready to be implemented in the US have indeed been stalled as too many senators, primarily from highly-industrialised states, objected to his proposals. Attempting to integrate emissions-reduction strategies into an international economy stumbles, as it becomes increasingly apparent that the two are incompatible. While both commodities which have high prices and limited availability, and commodities that are widely-available and have a low price may function in an international system of trade, speculative units of CO2 emissions constitute a fundamentally different commodity. In this framework, for sufficient emissions reductions to be achieved, permits need to exist in small numbers with a high unit price to discourage consumption, but for commercial industry to willingly engage without being politically disruptive, only the opposite can be effective, or we will see further failures in implementation such as the recent US Senate rejection. The Camp for Climate Action upholds that market-based strategies continue to place power at the feet of commercial gain, and that they prioritise the sanctity of fossil-fuel-reliant industry. As carbon markets continue to abuse the world’s climate and operate outside that which is democratically acceptable, The Camp for Climate Action mobilises for a radically different kind of change — instead of lobbying government and commercial industry, the movement calls for power to be in the hands of individuals and communities to enact a just transition to a sustainable future. Decision-making must come from those who do not have interest in profits, but rather in taking real action to mitigate an impending global disaster. Individuals all around the UK are organising from the grassroots up; autonomously-formed regional and local groups feed in to a wider, impassioned national network based upon the principles of non-hierarchical decision-making for international climate justice. Furthering the 12 hours of action at Bishopsgate in the City of London this Easter, Climate Camp returned to the City for a week commencing 27th August to the 2nd September to skill-share, self-educate and take action. All of this looks towards COP15. While the international delegates decide whether to trade the world’s resources for climate catastrophe and NGOs ask for concessions, activists from around the world will call and act for real change. For more details on the protests and actions during the various Climate Camps, see http://climatecamp.org.uk.
“Preventing dangerous climate change is essential for global security and prosperity,” reads the first sentence in the introduction to “Global Carbon Trading: A framework for reducing emissions”, a paper that outlines the UK government’s commitment to a reinvigorated cap-and-trade scheme to replace the EU’s ill-fated first foray into this economic framework. Economically developed countries like the UK and the US strongly hold the position that carbon markets are the only way in which the international community can work effectively to first cap emissions, and then proceed to the 85-95% reductions required by 2050 to prevent the “tipping point” of greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere that will topple the world’s climate into an irreparable state of chaos. These market-based strategies, however, are fiercely opposed by anti-capitalist climate activists around the world. The Camp for Climate Action has been working throughout 2009 to target such short-sighted proposals, and argues - alongside other grassroots networks and indigenous groups - that carbon market schemes will only work to exacerbate the greatest humanitarian and environmental catastrophe the world has ever faced. The principles of these objections are that entering into an economic market such as this will only reinforce the ability of industrial sectors to continue engaging in highly-emitting commercial activity, without immediately implementing measures that will wean them off excessive use of fossil fuels. Due to the free allocation of carbon permits, energy companies in Europe’s 5 highest-emitting nations - the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland - have made up to an estimated €71 billion windfall profit. In Germany, issued permits were supposed to cover 97% of the energy sector’s predicted emissions - they were instead allocated 103%; a woeful deviation from the supposed aims of the ETS. Promises to address the issues of the ETS and eliminate inadequacies have not been celebrated by grassroots movements. The character of the move away from ‘Phase One’, led by countries such as the US and the UK, and fiercely resisted by Climate Camp and others, is that of an even deeper engagement with the market forces, seeing the free allocation process replaced by a free market permit bidding system, in which credits will be auctioned off to those most able and willing to pay. Neither has this been greeted warmly by industry: one of the failings of ‘Phase One’ was that proposals to have more permits auctioned off was met by intensive and aggressive lobbying by the industries which would have been hit financially in having to pay for what they would later emit. In the run-up to COP15, this behaviour is still very much in evidence as the chief executive of American Electric Power, Michael Morris, has publicly claimed that Barack Obama’s carbon auctioneering plan is tantamount to a green tax, and that he will actively target 50 US senators in a lobby to have it thrown out of the Senate. Obama’s big plans to attend Copenhagen with this carbon market strategy ready to be implemented in the US have indeed been stalled as too many senators, primarily from highly-industrialised states, objected to his proposals. Attempting to integrate emissions-reduction strategies into an international economy stumbles, as it becomes increasingly apparent that the two are incompatible. While both commodities which have high prices and limited availability, and commodities that are widely-available and have a low price may function in an international system of trade, speculative units of CO2 emissions constitute a fundamentally different commodity. In this framework, for sufficient emissions reductions to be achieved, permits need to exist in small numbers with a high unit price to discourage consumption, but for commercial industry to willingly engage without being politically disruptive, only the opposite can be effective, or we will see further failures in implementation such as the recent US Senate rejection. The Camp for Climate Action upholds that market-based strategies continue to place power at the feet of commercial gain, and that they prioritise the sanctity of fossil-fuel-reliant industry. As carbon markets continue to abuse the world’s climate and operate outside that which is democratically acceptable, The Camp for Climate Action mobilises for a radically different kind of change — instead of lobbying government and commercial industry, the movement calls for power to be in the hands of individuals and communities to enact a just transition to a sustainable future. Decision-making must come from those who do not have interest in profits, but rather in taking real action to mitigate an impending global disaster. Individuals all around the UK are organising from the grassroots up; autonomously-formed regional and local groups feed in to a wider, impassioned national network based upon the principles of non-hierarchical decision-making for international climate justice. Furthering the 12 hours of action at Bishopsgate in the City of London this Easter, Climate Camp returned to the City for a week commencing 27th August to the 2nd September to skill-share, self-educate and take action. All of this looks towards COP15. While the international delegates decide whether to trade the world’s resources for climate catastrophe and NGOs ask for concessions, activists from around the world will call and act for real change. For more details on the protests and actions during the various Climate Camps, see http://climatecamp.org.uk.