No More “Green Capitalism”, An assessment of the failure of the Durban summit on the climate

[blindpig]

No More “Green Capitalism”, An assessment of the failure of the Durban summit on the climate

Josep Maria Antentas & Esther Vivas

We will save the markets, not the climate. That is how we can summarize the outcome of the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) which took place in Durban, South Africa between 28 November and 10 December 2011. There is a striking contrast between the rapid response by governments and international institutions at the onset of the economic and financial crisis of 2007-08 in bailing out private banks with public money and the complete immobility they demonstrate in response to climate change. Yet this should not surprise us, because in both cases it is the markets and their accomplices in government who come out as winners.

There were two central themes at the Durban summit; first, the future of the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012 and the ability to put in place mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and, secondly, the launch of the Green Climate Fund approved at the previous summit in Cancun (Mexico) with the theoretical aim of supporting the poorest countries to face the consequences of climate change through projects of mitigation and adaptation.

After Durban, we can say that a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol remains empty of content. They postponed any real action until 2020 and ruled out any binding regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was the representatives of the most polluting countries, headed by the United States, who argued for an agreement based on voluntary reductions and opposed any binding mechanism. The Kyoto Protocol was already inadequate, and its strict application would lead to a small slowdown of global warming. But now we are on a path that can only make the situation much worse.

With regard to the Green Climate Fund, as a first step, rich countries pledged to contribute up to $ 30 billion in 2012 and 100 billion per year until 2020. In the first place these amounts are insufficient. Further, no source of public funds has been identified. Therefore, the doors are wide open to private investment run by the World Bank. As has already been noted by social movements, this is a strategy to “transform the Green Climate Fund into a greedy employers’ fund”. Once again they are making profits from the climate crisis and environmental pollution (investment banks have already developed a range of financial instruments to intervene in what is called the carbon market, emissions, etc.)

more.......

http://esthervivas.wordpress.com/english/no-more-green-capitalism/

[SpiralHawk]

1. Must Watch: The Amazing Empowering Voice of Youth at Durban

The 'mic check' at the end is especially resonant...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ko3e6G_7GY4

[Magoo48]

4. Thanks for the inspiration.

I hope the youth of the world stop us, because we cannot or will not stop ourselves.

[SpiralHawk]

5. It is amazingly resonant, isn't it?

The young folk know exactly what is going on, and ain't standing for it.

[Bogart]

2. The UN's push for an eco-fascist world government is what prevented the adoption of a sensible

climate change treaty.

It was the UN, not the third-world countries, that would have gotten the money. The fact that there was no provision for the UN to publish accounts of how it would spend the $100 billion/yr the draft called for, was a hard sell.

[blindpig]

3. so capitalist's interests had nothing to do with it?

The capitalist's powers saved humanity from UN tyranny?

Got black helicopters?

[Bogart]

10. Well, the West is capitalist and they (we) are interested in surviving;

so obvioulsy, we had something to do with it.

The so-called "Right to survive" and the "International Climate Court," would have had a genocidal effect on the West.

[blindpig]

14. "We?"

You got a mouse in your pocket? I for one do not identify with our capitalist master's death wish for our planet and the majority of humanity. Capitalism is having a 'genocidal effect' worldwide as we speak.

[Bogart]

15. Nonsense, capitalism facilitated the evolution of the most advanced civilizations in the history of

the world. Conversely, Hitler's and Stalin's socialism was responsible for its most horrific genocides.

[blindpig]

17. Yes, it has....

but at the cost of inflicting terrible hardship on most of humanity and wrecking our environment at a breakneck pace. It's time is necessarily past, we must take that productive capability and use it for the benefit of all humanity.

Hitler was not a socialist.

The misdeeds of "Stalin's socialism" have been fantastically exaggerated.

[blindpig]

21. Using anti-capitalist propaganda does not make one a socialist.

What is fascism but militant capitalism with a populist veneer?

The 'viable option' has been present for 150 years.

[socialist_n_TN]

23. For the mass of people, capitalism was slightly better than feudalism

But now it's outlived it usefulness and is turning into a neofeudalism. Time to take the next step.

[lunatica]

6. Can you provide a link to back up your assertion?

It's pretty much a must at DU. People here tend not to just swallow anything that's pushed as facts without some back up.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. That depends heavily on what is being said

[Bogart]

12. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/awglca14/eng/crp38.pdf

[lunatica]

16. I don't get the paranoia about the UN pushing whatever people seem to fear.

What organization do you think should take this on? Or what country? The US? It's part of the UN. So are hundreds of other countries, including developing and third world countries.

I read nowhere in the pdf file that states they aren't accountable for what happens to the money.

Thanks for the link.

edited to add the last sentence

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. The key difference was that instead of "going direct" the UN was going to broker things heavily

than in the past. That upset the recipient nations. The reasons varied, but it was certainly one of the issues.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. That was some of the objections

India and China did not help either. The NGOs were of mixed help at best.

[blindpig]

9. By and large....

NGOs are the 'soft power' of the ruling class.

[lunatica]

11. Do you have a link?

Thanks.

[Bogart]

13. According to the draft, the aim was to create a "legally-binding instrument/outcome".

On the basis of drafts as in-your-face idiotic as this, no legally-binding climate treaty will ever be signed.

[Odin2005]

26. Oh noes, teh scary UN black helicopters!!!

[upi402]

20. The US is stuck on stupid... no INSANE

We could have many jobs if we initiated a green initiative.

But oil money is a helluva drug.

[socialist_n_TN]

22. There ain't no "green" capitalism. Just like there ain't no

"conscious" capitalism or "compassionate" capitalism. It's ALL capitalism and it's bottom line is profit. "Green" policies get in the way of profit, so OF COURSE, it won't be instituted. Just like consciousness and compassion get in the way of profit and, as such, won't be instituted.

All of these different "types" of capitalism are just marketing schemes to make an anti-people system more palateable for a little while longer. So the 1% can make more profit.

[blindpig]

24. Big problem with the environmental movement....

is that it is entirely conceived within the structure of capitalism. That'll never, ever work, the scant success of the movement over 40 years is testimony to this intractable constraint.

[socialist_n_TN]

28. That's actually the big problem with ALL of the single issue

"movements". They don't put their grievences in a meta context. Which Marxism does. The political, social and economics are ALL interrelated and boil down to ownership. Whoever owns the means of production owns it ALL and you're not going to be able to get any significient changes done UNTIL you have economic democracy. That's when you'll see enviromental changes that actually WORK for the rest of us. And social changes for various oppressed minorities (including religious minorities I might add) that work for the rest of us. And political changes that results in a purer form of democracy that benefits ALL of us and not just the owners.

ALL these single issue problems, no matter how grievious, have to be placed in the context of economic democracy. That is the biggest achievement of the Occupy movement to this point. They HAVE placed everything in the meta context of economic injustice. It's just a short step from economic injustice to the SOLUTION for economic injustice. That's economic democracy.

[blindpig]

29. Yes, indeed.

It's how they game us, a variety of divide & conquer.

[Starry Messenger]

25. Amen to all this.

"The movement for Climate Justice shows the need to focus our lives and the planet against the commodification of nature and the commons. Capitalism and its elites are unable to provide a comprehensive response to the socio-climate crisis which has led us to a productivist and predatory system. If we are not to exacerbate the climate crisis with all its consequences we must fundamentally change this system. The well-known environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey said very clearly: “The summit amplified climate apartheid, where the 1% richest in the world decided it was acceptable to sacrifice the remaining 99%.”"

[Odin2005]

27. Green Capitalism is an oxymoron.

All they care about is next quarter's profits.

[blindpig]

30. kick