critical currents Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation Occasional Paper Series Carbon Trading How it works and why it fails no.7 November 2009 critical currents no.6 October 2009 Contours of Climate Justice Ideas for shaping new climate and energy politics Edited by Ulrich Brand Edgardo Lander Nicola Bullard Tadzio Mueller With contributions by Kolya Abramsky Eduardo Gudynas Alberto Acosta Mike Hodson Walden Bello Enrique Leff Achim Brunnengräber Simone Lovera Ewa Charkiewicz Simon Marvin Anne Laure Constantin Alexis Passadakis Gopal Dayaneni Wolfgang Sachs Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation Uppsala 2009 critical currents 6 book_b.indd 1 09-11-05 11.17.56 The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation pays tribute to the memory of the second Secretary General of the UN by searching for and examining workable alternatives for a socially and economically just, ecologically sustainable, peaceful and secure world. In the spirit of Dag Hammarskjöld’s Critical Currents is an integrity, his readiness to challenge the Occasional Paper Series dominant powers and his passionate plea published by the for the sovereignty of small nations and Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. their right to shape their own destiny, the It is also available online at Foundation seeks to examine mainstream www.dhf.uu.se. understanding of development and bring to the debate alternative perspectives of often Statements of fact or opinion unheard voices. are those of the authors and do not imply endorsement By making possible the meeting of minds, by the Foundation. experiences and perspectives through the Manuscripts for review organising of seminars and dialogues, should be sent to the Foundation plays a catalysing role [email protected]. in the identifi cation of new issues and the formulation of new concepts, policy Series editor: Henning Melber proposals, strategies and work plans towards Language editor: Peter Colenbrander solutions. The Foundation seeks to be at the Layout: Karim Kerrou cutting edge of the debates on development, Design: Mattias Lasson security and environment, thereby Printed by X-O Graf Tryckeri AB continuously embarking on new themes ISSN 1654-4250 in close collaboration with a wide and Copyright on the text is with the constantly expanding international network. authors and the Foundation. critical currents 6 book_b.indd 2 09-11-05 11.17.56 Contents Preface ...............................................................................................................................5 Introduction .......................................................................................................................9 Ulrich Brand, Nicola Bullard, Edgardo Lander and Tadzio Mueller Radical climate change politics in Copenhagen and beyond: From criticism to action? ........9 part 1: How did we get here in the fi rst place? ...............................................................17 Ewa Charkiewicz A feminist critique of the climate change discourse. From biopolitics to necropolitics? ........ 18 Achim Brunnengräber Kyoto´s ‘fl exible mechanisms’ and the right to pollute the air .................................... 26 Eduardo Gudynas Climate change and capitalism’s ecological fi x in Latin America ............................... 36 Walden Bello The deadly triad: Climate change, free trade and capitalism ......................................42 part 2 : Wrong turns, dead-ends and cross-roads ............................................................ 45 Simone Lovera REDD realities ..........................................................................................................46 Tadzio Mueller and Alexis Passadakis Green capitalism and the climate: It’s economic growth, stupid! ................................ 54 Anne Laure Constantin Fixing the world’s climate ‘foodprint’ ........................................................................ 62 Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin The right to the city – energy and climate change ..................................................... 70 part 3 : Mapping (and walking) the terrain of climate justice ..........................................79 Gopal Dayaneni Climate justice in the US ...........................................................................................80 Wolfgang Sachs Climate change and human rights ............................................................................. 85 Kolya Abramsky Energy, crisis and world-wide production relations ................................................... 92 Enrique Leff Degrowth, or deconstruction of the economy: Towards a sustainable world ..................101 Alberto Acosta The rights of nature, new forms of citizenship and the Good Life – Echoes of the Constitución de Montecristi in Ecuador ......................................... 108 critical currents 6 book_b.indd 3 09-11-05 11.17.56 critical currents 6 book_b.indd 4 09-11-05 11.17.56 Preface ‘Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.’ Albert Schweitzer More than 75 years ago, in a letter to Rut- he kept from the mid-1920s onwards. For ger Moll (probably in 1933), Dag Ham- Hammarskjöld, nature amounted almost to a marskjöld wrote about his emotions while sacred frontier. Some of the notes from 1951 spending the summer hiking in northern show with particular clarity his deep bonds Sweden. For him, this experience evoked ‘a with the wilderness, which for him was the: feeling of solidarity with nature’ as ‘almost the most important thing’.1 Hammarskjöld …extrahuman in the experience of the had a profound, intimate relationship with greatness of Nature. This does not allow the world of the sea and even more so that itself to be reduced to an expression of of the mountains.2 He had a deep-rooted our human reactions, nor can we share and conscious personal interaction with na- in it by expressing them. Unless we each ture, which was evidenced by, among other fi nd a way to chime in as one note in things, his admiration for the work of Carl the organic whole, we shall only observe von Linnaeus as well as his affi nity for the ourselves observing the interplay of its fi ction of Joseph Conrad and his belief in thousand components in a harmony out- the ethical philosophy of Albert Schweitzer, side our experience of it as harmony.4 to mention only the obvious instances. His posthumously published childhood memo- Hammarskjöld’s photos, which he took with ries of his upbringing on Uppsala’s Castle a passion during his explorations, pictured Hill provide further striking insight into his mostly landscape and were a visual expression almost spiritual relationship with the natural of this respect for nature. As he commented environment and habitat.3 in an essay entitled ‘The camera has taught me to see’, he was seeking to illustrate ‘the Not the least testament of this relationship balance of strength and nervous sensitivity so can be found in his entries in the notebook often displayed by nature’s own creations’.5 1 Quoted in Thelin, B. (2001), ‘Dag Hammarskjöld – Nature, Landscape, Literature’, Development Dialogue, Vol. 1, p.88. 2 See on the latter the magnifi cent pictorial tribute by 4 Hammarskjöld, D. (1993, 16th printing), Markings. Grundsten, C. (2007), Swedish Wilderness. The Mountain New York: Random House, p.66. World of Dag Hammarskjöld. Stockholm: Max Ström. 5 Quoted from ‘Landmarks. Photographs by Dag 3 Hammarskjöld, D. (2000), Castle Hill. Uppsala: Dag Hammarskjöld’, in Development Dialogue, Vol. 1, Hammarskjöld Foundation. 1987, p.28. Contours of Climate Justice. Ideas for shaping new climate and energy politics 5 Photo: Dag Hammarskjöld Dag Photo: critical currents 6 book_b.indd 5 09-11-05 11.17.57 The second secretary general of the United much beyond square one. Despite more than Nations most likely did not have climate 300 multilateral agreements negotiated and change in his mind. However, his notion entered into since 1972, the world’s climate of ‘solidarity with nature’ calls for further as we know it faces ultimate collapse. Politi- and fuller contemplation. Suffi ce it to con- cal and institutional constraints have stood clude within the confi nes of this preface that in the way of a solution: throughout his varied career he clearly had an awareness of natural beauty and serenity Many of the problems related to sustaina- and appreciated them as a treasure to be pro- ble development would have been solved tected in the post-Second World War era, easily, or would not have evolved if the with its belief in progress and modernity agreements reached early on actually had based on technological advancement and a been implemented. However, by the end Fordist conception of the industrialisation of the process, a huge implementation and commodifi cation of consumer societies. and accountability gap had accumulated – a failure that lies at the core of the chal- Soon after his untimely death in the early lenges today.6 hours of 18 September 1961 on a mission to the Congo to seek a peaceful resolution of The tendency of governments to place nar- the confl icts arising from its decolonisation, row state interests above global survival humankind’s disastrous eff ects on nature, and comes at a life-threatening price. It is there- responsibility for them, became a topical is- fore not surprising that many concerned per- sue in global governance initiatives. In 1967, sons have few if any expectations or illusions Sweden proposed that the UN General As- that those participating in the Copenhagen sembly convene a conference on the environ- event