The Politics of Carbon Markets PDF
Preview The Politics of Carbon Markets
The Politics of Carbon Markets The carbon markets are in the middle of a fundamental crisis – a crisis marked by collapsing prices, fleeing actors, and ever increasing greenhouse gas levels. Yet carbon trading remains at the heart of global attempts to respond to climate change. Not only this, but markets continue to proliferate – particularly in the Global South. The Politics of Carbon Markets helps to make sense of this paradox and brings two urgently needed insights to the analysis of carbon markets. First, the mar- kets must be understood in relation to the politics involved in their devel- opment, maintenance and opposition. Second, this politics is multiform and pervasive. Implementation of new techniques and measuring tools, policy development and contestation, and the structuring context of institutional set- tings and macro-social forces all involve a variety of political actors and create new forms of political agency. The contributions study the total extent of the carbon markets, from their prehistory to their contemporary expansion and wider impacts. This wide-ranging political perspective on the carbon markets is invaluable to those studying and interested in ecological markets, climate change govern- ance and environmental politics. Benjamin Stephan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Globalisation and Governance, Hamburg University, Germany. Richard Lane is a PhD researcher at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex, UK. Routledge Studies in Environmental Policy Land and Resource Scarcity Capitalism, struggle and well-being in a world without fossil fuels Edited by Andreas Exner, Peter Fleissner, Lukas Kranzl and Werner Zittel Nuclear Energy Safety and International Cooperation Closing the world’s most dangerous reactors Spencer Barrett Meredith, III The Politics of Carbon Markets Edited by Benjamin Stephan and Richard Lane The Politics of Carbon Markets Edited by Benjamin Stephan and Richard Lane First published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Benjamin Stephan and Richard Lane The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The politics of carbon markets / edited by Benjamin Stephan and Richard Lane. pages cm. — (Routledge studies in environmental policy) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Emissions trading—Political aspects. 2. Carbon offsetting—Political aspects. 3. Carbon dioxide mitigation—Political aspects. 4. Air— Pollution—Political aspects. 5. Environmental policy. I. Stephan, Benjamin. II. Lane, Richard (Research student, University of Sussex) HC79.A4.P646 2015 363.738(cid:99)746—dc23 2014010958 ISBN: 978-0-415-70713-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-88698-5 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK ‘The Politics of Carbon Markets offers an enlivening antidote to carbon mar- ket fatigue. The assembled articles avoid moribund debates between pro- ponents and opponents of carbon trading by anchoring carbon markets in the broader concerns of environmental politics; and not a politics of governments and policy instruments, but a postfoundational “lively poli- tics,” which interrogates questions of nature, culture and power. Benjamin Stephan and Richard Lane’s edited volume is a must read for those seeking to understand the past, present, and future politics of carbon.’ Simone Pulver, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA ‘Can carbon markets be part of the solution to global climate change, including in the Global South? Can they make development more sustain- able as well as reduce emissions? This edited volume takes a historical per- spective on the evolution of carbon markets, mainly in the North. With close analysis of the political construction of markets, the volume offers food for thought for those who want to understand how it might evolve in developing countries in future.’ Harald Winkler, University of Cape Town, South Africa ‘Carbon markets have long been understood to be exacerbating the very climate crisis they were supposed to help address. What is less understood is why they stagger on regardless. This timely volume greatly illuminates the deep politics of these so-called “zombies” and of the zombie scholar- ship that sometimes accompanies them. In so doing, it lends welcome empirical substance to the study of that more encompassing zombie phe- nomenon known as neoliberalism.’ Larry Lohmann, The Corner House, UK This page intentionally left blank Contents List of illustrations ix List of contributors x Acknowledgements xiii 1 Zombie markets or zombie analyses? Revivifying the politics of carbon markets 1 RICHARD LANE AND BENJAMIN STEPHAN PART I The politics of carbon before carbon 25 2 Resources for the future, resources for growth: the making of the 1975 growth ban 27 RICHARD LANE 3 Politics by other means: the making of the emissions trading instrument as a ‘pre-history’ of carbon trading 51 ARNO SIMONS AND JAN-PETER VOß 4 Allometric equations and timber markets: an important forerunner of REDD+? 69 HEATHER LOVELL AND DONALD MACKENZIE 5 Virtuous carbon 91 MATTHEW PATERSON AND JOHANNES STRIPPLE viii Contents PART II The politics of carbon 111 6 A neo-Gramscian account of carbon markets: the cases of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism 113 ELAH MATT AND CHUKWUMERIJE OKEREKE 7 The politics of carbon markets in the global South 133 MARKUS LEDERER 8 Carbon governance in China by the creation of a carbon market 150 ANITA ENGELS, TIANBAO QIN AND EVA STERNFELD 9 The currencies of carbon: carbon money and its social meaning 171 PHILIPPE DESCHENEAU PART III The politics of carbon after carbon 189 10 The politics of researching carbon trading in Australia 191 CLIVE L. SPASH 11 Dialogue of the deaf? The CDM’s legitimation crisis 212 PETER NEWELL 12 The post- and future politics of green economy and REDD+ 237 KATHLEEN MCAFEE 13 Political sellout! Carbon markets between depoliticising and repoliticising climate politics 261 CHRIS METHMANN AND BENJAMIN STEPHAN Index 280 Illustrations Figures 4.1 Backhoe in the field 80 4.2 Hollow tree 83 5.1 Moments in carbon’s commodification 93 8.1 Overall layout – roadmap for China’s ETS 155 8.2 ETS roadmap based on the interaction between law and policy 160 Tables 5.1 Virtuality and virtue at each moment in carbon’s commodification 97 5.2 Units in the compliance and voluntary carbon markets 102 8.1 Comparison of three ETS pilots 158 11.1 Members of the High Level Panel on the CDM Policy Dialogue 223 13.1 Changes in selected Global Warming Potential estimates between the second and the fourth IPCC Assessment Reports 274
The list of books you might like
