Green capitalism and democracy
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of three ‘flexible mechanisms’ that allows signatories of the Kyoto Protocol (all developed countries) to purchase ‘credits’ which they can then ’spend’ by investing in clean energy projects in the developing world.
On April 15th last month, the CDM approved its 1,000th project. Analysis and disclosure of its impacts is of critical importance, argued Patrick McCully in the Guardian on Wednesday, because a system intended to help reduce CO2 is instead supporting polluting and often corrupt programmes to benefit from huge pots of money.
According to McCully,
evidence is accumulating that it is increasing greenhouse gas emissions behind the guise of promoting sustainable development. The misguided mechanism is handing out billions of dollars to chemical, coal and oil corporations and the developers of destructive dams - in many cases for projects they would have built anyway.
Green Capitalism
Sociologists of the Ecological Modernization school would call emissions trading a mechanism of ‘green capitalism’, a paradigm of capitalism where “production processes are increasingly constructed using ecological criteria” (Mol and Sonnenfield, 2000: 4). As referenced by Constance Lever-Tracy in the latest issue of Current Sociology, this school was influenced by Huber’s arguments in the 1980s “that a green capitalism was both possible and desirable” (Lever-Tracy 2008: 458).
But green capitalism is failing the environment. And its mechanisms are receiving limited coverage in the media to help the public to make informed judgements on important environmental issues. Is the paucity of media coverage contributing to a lack of democratically accountability? More »
