29th November 2010 – On the first day of the UN climate negotiations taking place in Cancún, Mexico, a group of activists from Belgium and around Europe have non-violently occupied the offices of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). This action highlights the fact that carbon trading is a false solution to the climate crisis. By disrupting the work of one of the major carbon trading lobby groups, in the centre of the European Quarter in Brussels, the activists are drawing attention to the negative role that business lobbyists are playing in the EU’s climate policy.
Shortly after 2pm, activists peacefully entered the offices of IETA, on Rue de la Loi in Brussels, effectively preventing work from taking place inside the offices. Other activists remained outside, holding banners that read “Our climate is not for sale!” and “Carbon Trading is a false solution”.
Carbon trading is seen by the European Union as the favoured solution to the climate crisis, EU negotiators in Cancun are pushing for an extension of carbon trading schemes. The EU’s carbon trading scheme (known as the EU Emissions Trading System), which allows companies to buy and sell the right to emit greenhouse gases, contains some significant loopholes. Many companies are given permits for free, while they still pass the costs on to consumers. There has also been a massive over-allocation of permits, allowing companies to profit hugely from selling excess permits. Combined, these loopholes mean that the overall level of emissions has actually risen within the EU since the introduction of the scheme.
The scheme also includes international carbon “offsetting”, where companies can avoid making cuts to their own emissions by paying for credits on the international carbon markets. Few of these credits are linked to real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and some offsetting schemes have been linked to serious environmental and social impacts in developing countries.
The focus on IETA in today’s action highlights the role of business lobby groups in promoting false solutions such as carbon trading, instead of supporting real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. IETA exists to promote the interests of its members who are made up of big energy companies (BP, Shell, Vattenfall); banks (BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs); lawyers (Clifford Chance, Norton Rose); and carbon trading companies (including EcoSecurities).
IETA uses events such as the Cancún climate negotiations to promote the idea of a global market in greenhouse gases. In this way it distracts attention from the need for the EU and other industrialised countries, who have caused the climate crisis, to make real cuts in emissions through increasing energy efficiency, renewable energy and transforming the way in which we produce and consume.
Jana Timmerman, who participated in today’s action, said: “Carbon trading is a false solution to the climate crisis. Relying on carbon trading means big profits for the polluting industry, while they continue business as usual. Lobby groups such as IETA are promoting carbon trading in the interest of their big business members. We need real action to transform the way in which we produce and consume, in order to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.”
The activists stress that climate and air are not for sale. Climate and air are a public good and a universal right, they shouldn’t be turned into a commodity that can be privately owned and traded.
In 2011, the Belgian Climate Action Camp will focus on carbon trading. A year of actions, public awareness raising and an action camp in the summer, will draw attention to the problems of carbon trading.
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NOTES:
IETA was nominated for the “Worst Climate Lobby Awards” in 2009, as a result of it’s activities to promote carbon trading and carbon offsetting. More information: http://www.angrymermaid.org/ieta
