November, 04 2009, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Henry Rummins or Rose Hall, Friends of the Earth press office - Tel: +44 20 7566 1649
Carbon Trading 'The Next Sub-Prime' - New Research
Plans to expand carbon markets at UN climate talks this December
could trigger a second 'sub-prime' style financial collapse and fail to
protect the world from global warming catastrophe, a new report from
Friends of the Earth warns today (Thursday 5 November 2009).
LONDON
Plans to expand carbon markets at UN climate talks this December
could trigger a second 'sub-prime' style financial collapse and fail to
protect the world from global warming catastrophe, a new report from
Friends of the Earth warns today (Thursday 5 November 2009).
'A Dangerous Obsession' focuses on the buying and selling of a new
artificial commodity - the right to emit carbon dioxide - which the UK
and other developed country governments want to see expanded into a
massive worldwide market and are pushing in the negotiations running up
to the big Copenhagen climate talks in December.
The trade in carbon permits and credits, mainly based in Europe, was
worth $126 billion in 2008 and is predicted to balloon to $3.1 trillion
by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off.
But the majority of the trade is carried out not between polluting
industries and factories covered by carbon trading schemes, but by
banks and investors who profit from speculation on the carbon markets -
packaging carbon credits into increasingly complex financial products
similar to the 'shadow finance' around sub-prime mortgages which
triggered the recent economic crash.
This risks the development of sub-prime carbon and the possibility
of an eventual collapse in confidence in the market, with catastrophic
consequences for the global economy and also for our prospects of
avoiding runaway climate change.
Friends of the Earth's report warns that the Government's obsession
with carbon trading as a solution to climate change is high risk,
irresponsible and dangerous.
Existing carbon trading schemes are not delivering the emissions
cuts promised, and relying on this mechanism to reduce emissions
globally is gambling with the health of the planet and the future of
billions of people.
Carbon trading is also being used as a smokescreen by rich countries
to avoid their legal and moral commitment to provide money and
technology to developing countries to grow cleanly and adapt to climate
change. The green campaign group is calling on the Government to use
simple, direct and proven policy tools like regulation, a carbon tax,
and major public investment in greening the economy to reduce our
emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020, without offsetting.
Friends of the Earth's international climate campaigner and author of the report Sarah Jayne-Clifton said:
"Pushing a world carbon market as part of a global agreement to
tackle climate change risks a double whammy of financial and
environmental disaster.
"Carbon trading is failing dismally at reducing emissions, yet
allows speculators to grow rich from the climate crisis and hands
politicians and industry a get-out clause for polluting business as
usual.
"Science tells us rich countries must act first and fast to cut
their emissions at home if we are to avert climate catastrophe - and
support poorer countries with adequate public money to grow cleanly and
adapt to the effects of climate change which they are already
feeling.
"The credit crunch has taught us that Governments, not markets are
best placed to safeguard our future - at this critical point in the
fight against climate change Ministers must step in and lead the way
with a new, direct approach to tackling carbon emissions to create a
safe and green future for us all."
Friends of the Earth is demanding that the
Government changes its approach to climate change with its Demand
Climate Change campaign. The green campaign group is asking everyone to
sign its international petition to world leaders for a strong and fair
climate dealat https://www.demandclimatechange.org/ .
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
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"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and Brasília's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
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Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
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Led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Republican leaders in 23 states on Tuesday filed a petition making clear their aim to allow petrochemical companies and other corporations to continue operating pollution-causing facilities without regard for the "disparate impact" they can have on low-income communities of color.
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The law prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating against residents based on race and national origin and allows residents to petition the EPA arguing that state agencies have intentionally discriminated or disparately impacted a particular community.
Title VI has underpinned hundreds of legal cases, including recent EPA investigations into the 85-mile stretch of land in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley, where dozens of petrochemical plants have been built and health experts have observed a disproportionate number of cancer cases and other medical problems among the predominantly Black population.
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Andre Segura, vice president of litigation at the environmental legal group Earthjustice, said Wednesday that the Republican attorneys general aim to "eviscerate civil rights protections just to make it easier for industrial polluters to continue with business as usual."
"Everyone should be alarmed by these outrageous efforts," said Segura. "The fact is, many of the states that have signed the petition have historically allowed these harmful facilities to be placed in predominantly Black and brown communities, without regard for the health and safety of residents."
Manuel Fernandez, president of Miami-Dade County Democrats in Florida, said the effort was "embarrassing" and called on Moody to resign.
The petition was filed three months after U.S. District Court Judge James Cain Jr., an appointee of former President Donald Trump in Louisiana, ruled that Title VI requirements amount to "government overreach."
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As Volkswagen workers in Tennessee began voting on whether to join the United Auto Workers, progressive critics on Wednesday continued to call out six Southern GOP governors for jointly saying they "are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the UAW has brought into our states."
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What actually threatens American workers?\n\u274c Anti-union, anti-worker propaganda like this\n\ud83d\udcb0 Corps that put profits over people\n\u26d1\ufe0f Safety standards not being met\n\n@GovAbbott & @GovernorKayIvey sound more like corporate lobbyists than governors here. @UAW backs American workers!— (@)
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