Governance Failure Why carbon markets will not bring about radical emissions reductions Professor Steffen Böhm Essex Sustainability Institute, University of Essex www.essex.ac.uk/esi; [email protected]; steffenboehm.net; @SteffenBoehm The Radical Emission Reduction Conference 10-11 December 2013 www.essex.ac.uk/esi
Presentation by Prof Steffen Boehm from Essex Sustainability Institute - University of Essex on The Radical Emission Reduction Conference: 10-11 December 2013.
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1. www.essex.ac.uk/esiGovernance Failure Why carbon markets
will not bring about radical emissions reductions Professor Steffen
Bhm Essex Sustainability Institute, University of Essex
www.essex.ac.uk/esi; [email protected]; steffenboehm.net;
@SteffenBoehm The Radical Emission Reduction Conference 10-11
December 2013
2. www.essex.ac.uk/esiDespite overshooting, growth mantra
continues The Earth has already exceeded its capacity to supply
source and sink resources; Consumption and population drivers
continue to rise dramatically; Overshoot is already happening; more
resources are being used than can be regenerated each year;
Economic growth and rise of GDP are still primary political goals
in most countries; Yet, indefinite growth is impossible in a finite
world.Pretty, J (2013) The consumption of a finite planet. Environ.
Resource Econ. 55(4): 475-499. 3. www.essex.ac.uk/esiIPCC tends to
underestimate carbon
emissionshttp://www.skepticalscience.com/graphics/CO2_Emissions_IPCC_1024.jpg
4. www.essex.ac.uk/esiCarbon markets: worlds preferred policy
choicehttp://www.carbonbrief.org/media/248351/iea-weo-carbon-markets.jpg
5. www.essex.ac.uk/esiWhy have carbon markets failed? 10 reasons
Non-additionality but business-as-usual Corruption and capture by
elites Windfalls for fossil fuel industries Total lack of
environmental integrity (Connie Hedegaard) Lip service to
sustainable development Little or no community involvement Little
or no accountability and transparency Carbon price provides no
signal Enables the North to look green, while the South suffers
most from climate change Production focus but consumption is keyBhm
& Dabhi (2009, 2011), Bhm et al. (2012a, b); Bhm (2013) 6.
www.essex.ac.uk/esiIndian carbon trader: CER price is a
jokehttp://www.redd-monitor.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/cer.png
7. www.essex.ac.uk/esiGFL: excessive profits, corruption, health
impacts 8. www.essex.ac.uk/esiIndia wind farms: Triple bottom line
vs triple profits 9. www.essex.ac.uk/esiGovernance
trianglePlanetary boundaryAdapted from Middtun, 2005 10.
www.essex.ac.uk/esiGovernance failure: Capture by commercePlanetary
boundaryAdapted from Middtun, 2005 11. www.essex.ac.uk/esiCommerce
takeover: Testing planetary boundaryPlanetary boundaryAdapted from
Middtun, 2005 12. www.essex.ac.uk/esiThe challenge: How to
rebalance governance?Planetary boundaryAdapted from Middtun,
2005
