Dear Ministers,

We, more than hundred civil society organisations from 35 countries across all continents, call on Parties to acknowledge the urgency with which climate change needs to be addressed and to agree to ambitious and immediate emissions reduction targets that are in line with the Cancun Agreement to prevent global warming beyond two degrees Celsius. Kyoto Protocol parties must commit to a second commitment period at Durban. The legal and governance structure of the Kyoto Protocol is crucial to ensuring that mitigation commitments are legally binding and have environmental integrity. continue reading…

Declaration of Brazilian movements and civil society organizations

Despite successive failures related to market based solutions proposed in the last almost 20 years of UNFCCC negotiations, some governments, and Brazil among them, keep insisting on the promotion of market mechanism in the legal framework as a solution to climate crisis, as well as on the road to green economy frame proposed to be discussed at Rio+20 in June next year. continue reading…

By Michael Szabo and Jeff Coelho (published in  www.pointcarbon.com)

EU carbon prices could crash to as low as 3 euros as the 27-nation bloc struggles with a mounting debt crisis and the market remains oversupplied with permits until 2025, analysts at UBS said late on Thursday.

The Swiss investment bank also said the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) “isn’t working” because carbon prices are “already too low to have any significant environmental impact.” continue reading…

GRASSROOTS GLOBAL JUSTICE ALLIANCE & LA VIA CAMPESINA NORTH AMERICA

GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION

DECEMBER 3: 1000 DURBANS FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

December 5: Via Campesina International Food Sovereignty Day to Cool Down the Earth

STOP THE 1% FROM PROFITING FROM POLLUTION!
LIFT UP COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS THAT COOL THE PLANET!

GGJ and La Vía Campesina are calling on all members and allies to mobilize on Saturday, December 3 under the banner of “1000 DURBANS FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE! STOP THE 1% FROM PROFITING FROM POLLUTION, LIFT UP COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS THAT COOL THE PLANET!” continue reading…

by Nnimmo Bassey

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What role will Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and Friends of the Earth International be playing at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban? What will you be pushing for?

NNIMMO BASSEY: While there is a generally low level of expectation from the Durban Conference of the Parties (COP17), we see it as a great moment to stand with impacted peoples and the environmental justice movement and call for a climate tackling regime that understands the depth of the crises and the fact that the impacts are already manifesting. We will push for polluting countries to cut emissions at source and not through offsets and related market mechanisms that help polluters profit from the damage they do. We will push for legally binding emissions reduction targets to ensure that temperature increase is kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. ERA will demand the recognition and payment of the accumulated climate debt due to centuries of exploitation and colonisation of the atmosphere. continue reading…

by Lim Li Lin

There are two main treaties governing global climate change action, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was part of the package of environmental treaties that was adopted in Rio in 1992 and entered into force in 1994, and the Kyoto Protocol (KP), which is linked to the UNFCCC and was adopted in 1997. The KP entered into force in 2005.

An important point about these treaties is that they are multilateral treaties under the UN. Under these two treaties there are two subsidiary bodies: the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). These two bodies support the KP and the UNFCCC. continue reading…

The following comment has been produced by members and affiliates of the Climate Justice Now! network. The network numbers more than 1000 organizations in the global north and south. It is a preliminary comment and has not been fully discussed by all members of the network yet.  Accordingly, not every recommendation in this comment has been explicitly endorsed by all network members or organizations, but only by those who have signed on below. However, these comments capture many of the ideas and the fundamental consensus, which have been formulated in previous meetings since the CJN! networks’ inception and first articulation of the Principles for Climate Justice in 2008. continue reading…

On the eve of COP16, the Global Forest Coalition has released a new report: “Getting to the Roots. The underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, and drivers of forest restoration”. The report will be formally launched next Wednesday in Cancun.

continue reading…

“Anyone who still thinks that creating a carbon casino can solve our climate crisis owes it to themselves to read this book. The most convincing and concise challenge to the green profiteers yet.”
Naomi Klein, author, The Shock Doctrine

“The transition to a post-oil model is inevitable but instead of starting this process, it is delayed by barriers and traps such as the carbon market. This book teaches us how this barrier works and what there is behind this new trap of green capitalism. It is obligatory reading for all who fight for a post-oil civilisation.”
Ivonne Yanez, Oilwatch South America

“This book is an invaluable contribution to understanding the pitfalls of relying on the carbon markets to save the world’s poor and the planet.”
Meena Raman, Third World Network

As up to 15,000 people gather in Bolivia to advance grassroots responses to the climate crisis, a new book exposes the failings of global climate policy and lays out numerous ways forward without the carbon market system that lies at its heart.
Carbon Trading: How it works and why it fails provides a devastating critique of both the theory and practice of carbon trading, and exposes its disastrous track record since its adoption as part of the Kyoto Protocol. It shows how the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, the world’s largest carbon market, has consistently failed to ‘cap’ emissions, while the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) routinely favours environmentally ineffective and socially unjust projects.
Free download at: http://www.carbontradewatch.org

The book includes original research with compelling case studies of CDM projects in Brazil, Indonesia, India and Thailand that have proved to be fraudulent, based on dispossession and human rights abuses, and led to strong resistance from communities in the Global South.

The book reveals how carbon trading is only a very recent invention by business and political elites that undermines existing environmental legislation and diverts from planning a rapid transition away from current fossil fuel expansion. It points to a plethora of ways forward without carbon trading – from subsidy shifting to regulation – based on local knowledge and political organising if climate change is to be addressed in a just manner.

The authors, Tamra Gilbertson and Oscar Reyes, are both researchers with Carbon Trade Watch. The project combines high quality research and integration with social movements worldwide, which has made it a respected commentator on global climate policy and climate justice since 2002.

The Spanish version of the book will be launched at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.

For interviews and comments:
Tamra Gilbertson +34 625 498 083 (tamra@carbontradewatch.org)
Oscar Reyes (in English) +27 791 682 998 (oscar@carbontradewatch.org)
Joanna Cabello +31 681 389 805 (joanna@carbontradewatch.org)
(in Bolivia 16-24 of April. Local number: +591 705 435 49)

To obtain a printed copy, contact Joanna Cabello by email or local number.

Download the book in Spanish: http://www.carbontradewatch.org/downloads/publications/mercado_de_emisiones.pdf
Download the book in English: http://www.carbontradewatch.org/carbon-trading-how-it-works-and-why-it-fails.html
ISBN 9789071007316
132 pages
English version

The book is also available in an English version, published by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (www.dhf.uu.se) as part of its Critical Currents series. To obtain a printed copy, contact Tamra Gilbertson (tamra@carbontradewatch.org).

The book can be downloaded for free from: www.carbontradewatch.org/carbon-trading-how-it-works-and-why-it-fails.html