California Environmental Justice Movement  [Printer-friendly version]
February 19, 2008

DECLARATION ON CARBON TRADING SCHEMES TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE

By the California Environmental Justice Movement

1. Whereas, the climate system of the planet and the energy choices we
make are inextricably linked to a looming ecological and social
catastrophe; and

2. Whereas, the United States and all other countries of the world
face a moment of great promise and great peril regarding our energy
production and use, including: 1) our overdependence on fossil fuels
such as oil, natural gas, and coal; 2) the production and use of bio-
fuels with dubious sustainability attributes; and 3) the resurgence of
domestic and international nuclear power development; and

3. Whereas, Asian, Black, Latino, and Native American communities in
the United States, as well as indigenous and poor people around the
world, disproportionately bear the negative economic, environmental,
and health impacts of the fossil fuel economy at every stage of its
life cycle including its exploration, extraction, production,
refining, distribution, consumption, and disposal of its waste; and

4. Whereas, global climate change caused by burning fossil fuels,
resulting in the release of carbon dioxide, other green house gases,
and associated co-pollutants into our oceans, air, soil, and
vegetation jeopardizes the planet's ability to maintain a livable
climate and causes grave health problems in poor communities,
communities of color, and indigenous communities around the world; and

5. Whereas, the international scientific community predicts that
climate change will cause great human suffering, the brunt of which
will be borne by the world's poor, developing nations, disenfranchised
indigenous communities, the infirm, and peoples of color that have
been historically discriminated against at global, national, and local
levels; and

6. Whereas, the best available science indicates that the planet is
warming more rapidly than we understood when the Kyoto Accord was
ratified and that reductions in greenhouse gases must be undertaken
more quickly and with greater urgency than previously recognized; and

7. Whereas, many of the nations that ratified the Kyoto Accord are
failing to meet the treaty's requirements for greenhouse gas emission
reductions; and

8. Whereas, the policy cornerstone of the Kyoto approach is a market-
based system to allow nations to establish emissions "rights" and
trading of "rights" to emit carbon, known as cap & trade under the
European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU- ETS); and

9. Whereas, the EU-ETS created transferable "rights" to dispose of
carbon into the air, oceans, soil, and vegetation far in excess of the
capacity of these systems to absorb it; and

10. Whereas, economic globalization steers international commodity
markets to manufacture and privatize the "right" to dispose of green
house gases and their co-pollutants into the air, oceans, soil,
vegetation and human bodies and is in direct conflict with the true
human rights of people and respect for our planet; and

11. Whereas, Phase 1 of the EU-ETS has been documented as giving
billions of dollars worth of these "rights," free of charge, to the
biggest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases who are responsible for
causing the global warming crisis and thereby created one of the
largest transfers of wealth from low- and middle-income people to
private corporations in the modern industrial era; and

12. Whereas, carbon trading under Phase 1 of the EU-ETS benefited
fossil-fuel intensive corporations and stands in the way of the
transition to clean renewable energy technologies and energy
efficiency strategies that are critically necessary to substantially
reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and

13. Whereas, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto
Accord, as well as voluntary private sector trading schemes,
encourages industrialized countries and their corporations to finance
or create carbon dumps in the Developing World as lucrative
alternatives to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Developed
Countries; and

14. Whereas, the EU-ETS and the CDM sanctions the continued
exploration, extraction, refining, and burning of fossil fuels and
finances projects such as private industrial tree plantations and
large hydro-electric facilities that appropriate land and water
resources jeopardizing the livelihoods of local communities in the
Developing World as carbon dumps for industries in the Developed
World; and

15. Whereas, the EU-ETS and CDM fail to address and further deepens
entrenched social inequalities, irresponsible development trends,
inadequate hazard reduction policies, and are silent on confronting
disaster vulnerability of populations worldwide; and

16. Whereas, carbon trading is undemocratic because it allows
entrenched polluters, market designers, and commodity traders to
determine whether and where to reduce greenhouse gases and co-
pollutant emissions without allowing impacted communities or
governments to participate in those decisions; and

17. Whereas, the political power of the major global polluters has
resulted in carbon trading schemes that include inadequate reporting
systems, are impossible for the public and regulatory agencies to
monitor, allow gaming of the system by market participants, and lack
meaningful penalties for failure to comply; and

18. Whereas, greenhouse gases will be substantially reduced only
through a transition to greater energy efficiency and sustainable
energy technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels; and

19. Whereas, capturing energy from the wind, sun, ocean, and heat
stored within the Earth's crust builds the health and self-reliance of
people and our communities, protects the planet, creates jobs, and
expands the global economy; and

20. Whereas, global energy transformation is the politically unifying
and inclusive principle that affirms the rights of all people--
including the poor, women, rural and indigenous communities--to have
access to affordable and sustainable energy and the enhanced quality
of life that such access affords; and

21. Whereas, the EU-ETS, including the CDM, is often portrayed as a
necessary first step toward establishing an effective international
climate change plan and has been presented as a model for California's
efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;

The California Environmental Justice Movement DECLARES that the EU-
ETS, including the CDM, is a step in the wrong direction; and

The California Environmental Justice Movement FURTHER DECLARES that we
will fight at every turn all efforts to establish a system of carbon
trading and offset use in California; and

The California Environmental Justice Movement FURTHER DECLARES that
our demands for real changes in the way we make and use energy will
not be silenced by promises of money or token adjustments to the
fundamentally flawed trading and offsets approach; so

BE IT THEREFORE, RESOLVED, that the California Environmental Justice
Movement stands with communities around the world in opposition to
carbon trading and offset use and the continued over reliance on
fossil fuels; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Environmental Justice
Movement will support conservation, regulatory, and other measures to
address greenhouse gases only if they directly and significantly
reduce emissions, require the shift away from use of fossil fuels and
nuclear power, and do not cause or exacerbate the pollution burden of
poor communities of color in the United States and developing nations
around the world; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Environmental Justice
Movement will oppose efforts by our state government to create a
carbon trading and offset program, because such a program will not
reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the pace called for by the
international scientific community, it will not result in a shift to
clean sustainable energy sources, it will support and enrich the
state's worst polluters, it will fail to address the existing and
future inequitable burden of pollution, it will deprive communities of
the ability to protect and enhance their communities, and because if
our state joins regional or international trading schemes it will
further create incentives for carbon offset programs that harm
communities in California, the region, the country, and developing
nations around the world.

THEREFORE, We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, affirm
our solidarity with the California Environmental Justice Movement,
poor, and indigenous people around the world.

Signatories (as of early June, 2008)

8th Day Center for Justice, IL

American Society of International Law -- International Environmental
Law Interest Section

Asian-Pacific Environmental Network

Association of Irritated Residents

Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates

Breast Cancer Action

California Communities Against Toxics

California Environmental Rights Alliance

California Safe Schools

California State University Long Beach Campus Progressives Collective

Carbon Trade Watch, U.K.

Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

Clean New York

Climate Change Action Group of Central New York

Coalition For A Safe Environment

Comite Pro Uno

Communities for a Better Environment

Concerned Citizen's regarding Chevron's Expansions Plans

Del Amo Action Committee

Desert Citizens Against Pollution

Earth Day Los Angeles

Environmental Community Action Inc. (ECO-Action), GA

Environmental Health Coalition

Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, GA

Environmental Research Foundation, NJ

Food Empowerment Project

Fresno Metro Ministry

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

JustEnvirons

Ladies of Charity of Chemung County, NY

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), IL

Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS)

Merced/Mariposa County Asthma Coalition

New Jersey Concern

New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance

Pacific Environment

Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA

People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER)

Rainforest Action Network

Rising Tide North America

San Joaquin Valley Latino Environmental Advance Project

School of Democratic Economics, Indonesia

Strategic Concepts in Organizing Policy Education (SCOPE)

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

Society for Positive Action

SmartMeme

StrikeOut Studio, LA

Student Environmental Action Coalition

The Corner House, U.K.

West County Toxics Coalition

West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.

I N D I V I D U A L S :

Adrian Totten

Amanda Henry, CA

Amber Logan, NC

Azibuike Akaba, E.I.P. delegate, Oakland, CA

B Bernzott, NJ

Barbara A. Brenner, CA

Bryan Todd, CA

Carol Steinsapir, NY

Chione Flegal, CA

Christopher Scott Smith, CA

Cristina Carrasquillo

Dave Shukla, CA

David Chatfield, CA

Dean S. Toji, CA

Debra Singer, CA

Dennis Yee, AZ

Donald Simon, CA

Elizabeth de Rham, CA

Felipe Aguirre, CA

Gary A. Patton

Gene Warren Jr., CA

Hendro Sangkoyo, Indonesia

Howard Ehrman, CA and IL

Igor Kagan, CA

Janie Anker, CA

Jeanne Fudala, NY

Jose Carmona, Sacramento, CA

Joseph Nowak, New Zealand

Juliette Anthony, CA

Justin Myers, NY

Jutta Kill, U.K.

Karen G. Pierce, CA

Kathleen Kimberling, CA

Karen Kirkland, PA

Larry Lohman, U.K.

Laura Lichtenberger, CA

Lauren Ornelas, CA

Linda Ferland, CA

Lori Morrison-Contreras, IL

Lucas Williams, CA

Marlene Grossman, Pacoima, CA

Mary Brune, CA

Mary Smith, NY

Melissa J. Kelly-Ortega, CA

Nicholas Baker, CA

Norma Nava, CA

Patrick Lynch, China

Patrick Reinsborough, CA

Peter Montague, NJ

Ricardo Alvarez, CA

Rita Gaber, CA

Robert D. Bullard, GA

Robin Freeman, Prof., CA

Rodger Nogaki, NJ

Rona Fernandez, CA

Shaelyn Strattan, CA

Sheila Davis, CA

Stephanie Pincetl, CA

Sylvester Johnson, Ph.D., NY

Valorie Caffee, NJ

Wil Burns, CA

Wilfred Candler, MD

Yew Yew