Kyoto critique

(Some ramblings for this month's ZNet commentary...)

Commodification: Kyoto threatens, WSF inspires resistance

The surgical counter-attack from the international left which impressed me
most at Porto Alegre, was bullshit detection in relation to two Kyoto deals:
the 1997 Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; and the
upcoming World Water Forum.

Next month, the UN and World Bank go to Japan in search of an impossible
consensus between multinational corporations, neoliberal state officials and
water-sector activists. I'll devote my March column to multiple water wars
which reveal how the progressive international eco-social movement weighs up
responsibilities and opportunities.

First, however, what are we learning about the commodification of air, via
various Kyoto "emissions-trading" mechanisms? Several WSF seminars were
sponsored by progressive groups like Carbon Trade Watch, the Sustainable
Energy and Economy Network, Oilwatch and the Energy Project, joined by
coal-face activists from labour, community, women's, indigenous-peoples and
environmental justice campaigns across the South.

A booklet just published--"The Sky is Not the Limit: The Emerging Market in
Greenhouse Gases" (TransNational Institute briefing series)--does a
brilliant job explaining the problem and accusing various enemies, including
coopted green groups. The five Carbon Trade Watch authors warn, "events have
been set in motion which are likely to have devastating impacts on people
and planet if allowed to continue".

At issue is how to halt global warming by controlling greenhouse gases from
industrial, agricultural and consumer emissions: carbon dioxide (C02),
methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur
hexafluoride. Kyoto ultimately leaves emissions reduction to corporate
profit-seeking, as opposed to the administrative command-and-control powers
that must urgently be constructed.

This is dangerous terrain on which to compromise. At the Johannesburg World
Summit on Sustainable Development last August, Greenpeace sold out, Carbon
Trade Watch alleges, by implicitly endorsing "market-based corporatist
approaches to environmental and social policy... Greenpeace's increasingly
muted opposition to emissions trading and its tacit and active endorsement
of companies that support the Kyoto Protocol has been a major ideological
victory for sophisticated corporate lobby groups such as the World Business
Council for Sustainable Development, and has paved the way for further
expansion and development of the market-based mechanisms. Many
image-conscious corporations seek to show off their environmental
credentials and thereby allay public concern by teaming up with a trusted
major environmental brand such as World Wildlife Fund or Greenpeace."

These finger-pointing authors are central to a "Rising Tide" network of
militant climate-change activists from the more sophisticated circuits of
Washington, London and Amsterdam--many are in their 20s and as sharp as I've
ever met--but also blessed with fantastic allies in the Third World,
especially Latin America. At a Delhi meeting where UN energy bureaucrats
gathered last November, thousands of protesters turned out to fight
emissions trading.

Closer to home, comrades in the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, who
illegally reconnect electricity in Robin Hood mode, are making these links.
South Africa is one of the world's very worst C02 generators, when corrected
for both per capita and per/GDP unit emissions (the latter so as to measure
the energy-efficiency of output). We emit 8.2 tonnes of C02 per person per
year compared to 20.5 by the US--however, for each $ of per capita GDP, the
SA figure is 20 times higher than the US.

The reason is simple: the huge corporations which mine and smelt
minerals--and then transfer most profits/dividends to their London financial
headquarters--are getting the world's cheapest electricity, while ten
million low-income South Africans pay roughly eight times more per kiloWatt
hour and, unable to afford the bills, suffer electricity disconnections.
Soweto activists are making these "red-green" links, and beginning to
generate demands for an entirely different macroeconomic strategy, U-turning
from the African National Congress (ANC) government's current
export-at-any-cost philosophy.

Another local catalyst is the World Bank's allegedly "environmentally
progressive" pilot emissions-trading project in Durban--the Bisasar landfill
gas extraction project--described in "The Sky is Not the Limit". Local
activist Sajida Khan, diagnosed with cancer along with family members of 70%
of her immediate neighbours, is leading the campaign against methane
extraction generated by waste decomposition. Instead, she insists, the dump
should be shut and waste-generation practices changed. Khan cites broken
municipal promises to this end seven years ago and ongoing violations of
dumping permits (e.g., luring dangerous medical waste).

Against all evidence to the contrary, the Bank insists Bisasar Road is "a
world-class site". Perhaps the increasingly politicised case will focus more
attention on Kyoto's pro-corporate strategy, whereby those responsible for
pollution can simply pay a bit more for the privilege, dumping the mess on
poor and working people, while in the process gaining carbon trading credits
to pollute elsewhere.

Back home in Johannesburg, I'm sensing a new wave of hope emerging in
various struggles against commodification. Part of that comes from the rise
in anti-war/imperialism sentiment and the way that radical community groups
have thrown themselves into organising upcoming protests on February 15 and
19.

The two large activist blocs in the country--first, the vibrant independent
social movements which marched against the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, and second, the traditional ANC/labour/communist/left-church
alliance--seem to have agreed this week to a rare non-aggression pact, so as
to combine forces against the Bush/Blair regimes. Expect some fun at US
embassy/consulates in several cities, as SA's normally pro-Washington ruling
party joins the resistance.

However, the more durable problem of official neoliberalism remains. The
Treatment Action Campaign will march on the opening of parliament on
February 14, demanding wider access to life-saving medicines. Promising a
campaign of civil disobedience, they received permission to use a prominent
photo of Nelson Mandela bearing a symbolic "HIV Positive" tee-shirt. Late
last year, Mandela made common cause with TAC against his successor Thabo
Mbeki, whose leading health officials remain stubbornly "genocidal" (a
common adjective used by even doctors and medical researchers when
characterisingPretoria's HIV/AIDS policies).

The same day, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Committee activists go to court to
fight disconnections and housing evictions. Supporters will protest in
solidarity on February 13 at the SA consulate at Trafalgar Square in London.
Meanwhile, the "Kensington 87" demonstrators from Soweto who were arrested
at a protest outside Jo'burg major Amos Masondo's house last April will
appear in court for public disorder one last time on March 5. After a
farcical prosecution case on January 22, they expect victory against what
has become obvious ruling party harassment.

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(keep abreast of the struggles at http://southafrica.indymedia.org)

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Patrick Bond
phone (27)83-633-5548
fax (27)11-484-2729