Carbon Markets After Paris: Trading in Trouble
Sean Sweeney, Coordinator of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy
“The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the “intended nationally determined contributions”submitted to the UNFCCC enshrines carbon markets and emissions trading schemes (ETSs) as a key mechanism for reducing emissions. But are carbon markets effective?
With carbon trading in deep trouble, unions now have an opportunity to organize against neoliberal approaches to reducing emissions and climate protection. A bold approach to climate change can, and already is, aiding the rising resistance to austerity and inequality in different parts of the world. Many unions now support social ownership and democratic control of energy as an important means to manage the shift to a low carbon future in a way that can seriously tackle climate change and at the same time ensure a truly “just transition” for workers and communities.”
Read the full report here