Carbon Trading or Climate Justice?

A Policy Report from the IRC Americas Program

By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, May 13, 2005

Most environmentalists see the Kyoto Protocol as the last best hope to counter global warming. But a growing number of civil society critics point out that the Protocol's “flexible,” market-based mechanisms allow corporate polluters to evade their emissions reduction obligations by buying up and trading carbon sinks, also known as carbon assets or carbon offsets.

This new trade is part of the emerging market in “environmental services,” which supporters claim can harness market forces and private property to provide economic incentives for environmental protection. But some environmentalists and indigenous peoples warn that this trade signals a new wave of enclosure and privatization of natural resources. They claim it has plenty to do with making money and nothing to do with saving the environment.