SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development)

The emperor’s new clothes?

Supporters of carbon trading (the process of buying and selling allowances for emitting greenhouse gases) say that it allows the market to self-regulate and restrict emissions.

However, so far the market has proved two things: the difficulty in allocating and pricing carbon credits; and the fact that the marketplace can create profits, but not necessarily reduce emissions. In 2005 European carbon prices collapsed after it emerged that 5 European countries had emitted less carbon than they had been allocated through the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Have a look at Offsetting Democracy – an article by Kevin Smith of Carbon Trade Watch on how carbon trading and offsetting distracts attention from the wider, systemic changes that need to be taken to achieve a low-carbon economy. He argues that promoting more effective approaches to climate change involves moving away from the blinkered reductionism of free-market dogma, the false economy of supposed quick fixes and the short-term self-interest of big business. You can find all the information you might need at the Carbon Trade Watch website, including The Great Green Smokescreen – a Channel 4 documentary taking a critical look at the voluntary offsets market.