Carbon Trading: Solution to Climate Change or Corporate Resource Grab? January 14, 2008

Who:
Larry Lohmann, the editor of "Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation
on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power", an
exhaustively-documented new book critiquing “carbon trading” is
speaking in Calgary.

What:
A free, public presentation on the problems caused by carbon trading
and its failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon trading
is the primary mechanism for reducing greenhouse gases under the
Kyoto Protocol, as well as Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John
Warner’s (R-Va.) “America’s Climate Security Act of 2007”, which is
currently up for debate in the Senate.

When:
Jan. 14th, 6PM

Where:
University of Calgary, MacEwan Student Centre, Escalus room

Why:
Carbon trading “dispossesses ordinary people in the South of their
lands and futures without resulting in appreciable progress toward
alternative energy systems,” says Lohmann. “Tradable rights to
pollute are handed out to Northern industry, allowing them to continue
to profit from business as usual. At the same time, Northern polluters
are encouraged to invest in supposedly carbon-saving projects in the
South, very few of which promote clean energy at all.”

Most of the carbon credits being sold to industrialized countries,
Lohmann explains, come from polluting projects that do nothing to
reduce fossil fuel use, such as schemes that burn methane from coal
mines or waste dumps. The bulk of fossil fuels must be left in the
ground if climate chaos is to be avoided, the book Carbon Trading
warns. The author and activist will describe his campaigning at the
recent the UN Climate Summit in Bali, Indonesia last December, as
well as describe the failed strategies the global financial community
is still trying to force on negotiators from developing countries.

"Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change,
Privatisation and Power" is available for download at
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk.

Official Website: http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org