4. Alf Gunvald Nilsen - Capitalism, Nature and Climate Change

7/27/2019 4. Alf Gunvald Nilsen - Capitalism, Nature and Climate Change

1/22

The Global Dynamics ofEnvironmental Change 1:

Capitalism, Nature andClimate Change

Alf Gunvald NilsenSOS110/Spring 2013


2/22

CARBON TRADING IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON


3/22

How did an American company end

up owning the carbon in trees? It allstarted in 1991, when conservation

groups identified this area, known asGuaraquecaba, as one of the most

threatened eco-hot spots in the world.

The American group The NatureConservancy tried for years to raise

funds to protect this land, but the bigmoney didn't start pouring into the

region until fears began to rise about

climate change. And it was a newreason to save the trees -- for their

carbon -- that brought in three largeAmerican companies.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/carbonwatch/2010/05/the-

carbon-hunters.html


4/22

Emissions trading hasbecome the centralstrategy for countering thesingle most importantglobal environmental

challenge facing the worldtoday climate change

Carbon trading isorganized through multiple

institutions the EU-ETS/CDM/REDD+/WB/UN: in2009 carbon markets werepredicted to reach $3tn,but in 2010 the international

carbon market collapsedto $1.5bn

IETS is significant because itrepresents a consensus centredon market-based approaches to

climate change

Carbon emissions are converted

into commodities that can bebought and sold on financial

markets Climate Capitalism

"We can't treat this problem like it

is a business, a commercialrelationship between countries.

To talk about dealing with thisissue just from the perspective of

carbon credits is to skirt the

responsibility we have to dealwith the dangers our planet is

facing.

Marina Silva


5/22

THE METABOLIC RIFT AND THECOMMODIFICATION OF NATURE


6/22

Understanding the Environment from a Sociological Perspective

Nature is commonly thought of as a realm of non-human objects andprocesses existing outside or beyond society it is an external entity which

is dominated, and that domination is either celebrated or lamented

In environmental sociology nature is understood in social terms Socialrelations shape the practices and institutions that structure human

interaction with the natural environment, and therefore nature itself, whichin turn feeds back and sustains those social relations

What is required is the recognition that each form

of social/economic life has its own specific modeand dynamic of interrelation with its own specificcontextual conditions, resource materials, energy

sources and naturally mediated unintendedconsequences The ecological problems of any

form of social and economic life have to betheorized as the outcome of this specific structure

of natural/social articulation

Ted Benton


7/22

JBFosterMarxsTheoryofMetabolicRift

Within the parameters of a capitalist mode of production, nature-societyrelations are structured according to the basic social relations and

economic dynamics of generalized commodity production

And this nature-society relation is characterized by a particular form ofenvironmental degradation that Marx designated as an irreparable rift in

the interdependent process of the social metabolism a metabolic rift

predicated on a new division of labour between town and country

Products of the countryside flowed into the cities The waste products were not returned to the point of production

Nutrients were pumped out of one eco-system and transferred to another Countryside = Disruption of the nutrition cycle and depletion of the soil; City

= Waste products generated by consumption accumulate as pollution

Capitalist production collects the population together in great centres

(This) disturbs the metabolic interaction between man and the earth, i.e. itprevents the return to the soil of its constituent elements consumed by man

in the form of food and clothing; hence it hinders the operation of the eternalnatural condition for the lasting fertility of the soil

Karl Marx

Metabolic rift = The interruption of a natural system


8/22

The dynamic of expanded

reproduction M-C-M hasdriven capitalism outwards ingeographical space in aprocess of extensiveexpansion

A new and internationaldivision of labour springs up,one suited to therequirements of the mainindustrial countries, and it

converts one part of theglobe into a chieflyagricultural field ofproduction for supplying theother part, which remains apre-eminently industrial field

Karl Marx

This leads to a globalcommodification of nature

With the rise of capitalism, localecologies were not only transformed

by human labour power butbrought into sustained dialogue with

each other. The interaction of multiplelocal and regional ecologies began to

create a new relational universe forecosystems no less than social actors

the rise of a capitalist world-economy and the rise of a capitalist

world-ecology were two moments ofthe same world-historical process

The global commodification of nature= Globalization of the metabolic rift

The globalization of the metabolic riftyielded the possibility of global

environmental contradictions andcrises for the first time in human history


9/22

CARBON TRADING AND THE MARKETIZATIONOF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE


10/22

Climate Change and/as Metabolic Rift

Climate change can be interpreted as the outcome of a metabolic

rift in the carbon cycle as a result of capitalist accumulation

Life created the atmosphere as we know it Interrelations betweenliving/non-living materials within the biosphere produces a cycling of

chemical elementsThe composition of gases in the atmosphere is the product of biological

processes on Earth Since time that oxygen-breathing organisms evolvedthe principal gases that envelop the atmosphere have been relativelystable at the current level: Nitrogen = 78%/Oxygen = 21%/Trace gases,

including greenhouse gases like CO2 = the remaining 1%

Greenhouse gases regulate Earth temperature to life-supporting levels

The carbon cycle The whole biosphere carbon moves through air, rocks,soil, water and all living things in a cyclical process

Over the past 400,000 years the carbon cycle and climate systems haveoperated in a relatively constrained manner to sustain Earth temperature andmaintain the balance of gases in the atmosphere Carbon is absorbed and

contained in carbon sinks like oceans, mountains, forestsB. Clark/R. York: Carbon Metabolism


11/22


12/22


13/22

Industrial capitalism has resulted in a vast increase of anthropogenicCO2 emissions as a result of a rapid expansion of the burning of coal

and petroleum in a process that exploits the stock of energy stored inthe earth and releases it back into the atmosphere

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere hasincreased to such an extent that natural sinks are nolonger capable of absorbing the excess carbon

Climate change

The historic accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphereinvolves the rupture of the carbon cycle

Brett/York: Carbon Metabolism

The quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased31 times since the preindustrial era and half of this

increase has taken place since 1965

It is insufficient to attribute this situation to industrialism per se Thisignores the way in which industrialism is embedded in a capitalist

political economy and how its environmental impact derives from the

intrinsically expansive dynamic of this political economy


14/22

Expanded reproduction = M C M

Within industrial capitalism, this dynamic is manifest in constantscientific and technological development Through this process of

development, capitalism has been freed from the limitations ofindividual workers labour power as the motive force of production

has been transferred from humans to machines

This developmental trajectory requires increases in the quantity ofmatter-energy for through-put in production In contrast to

earlier modes of production that were confined to the solar-income constraint capitalist production mines the earth to

remove stored energy and thus produces atmospheric waste onan ever-expanding scale

With more than 23 billion metric tons of CO2 being released into theatmosphere per year, capitalist production is creating waste

emissions at a rate that natural systems cannot absorb

The carbon cycle is disrupted and the outcome is climate change


15/22


16/22


17/22


18/22

The Marketization of Global Environmental Governance

an ensemble of strategies of market governance including practicesof privatisation and commodification of natural resources which derive

from a common belief in the ability of markets to provide the public goodof environmental protection in an efficient way Taking the strategies

together we can observe the myriad ways in which the possibilities ofenvironmental politics are being defined according to their ability to

serve the broader end of global market expansion

Peter Newell The Marketization of Global Environmental Governance

NB! The marketization of enviromental governance is closely linked toecological modernization An approach based on the assumption that

the ongoing modernization/rationalization of productive systems andpublic/private institutions, will enable society to develop in an

environmentally sustainable way Green capitalism

EM seeks to find ways in which environmental problems come to beframed as issues that are politically, economically, and technologically

solvable within the context of existing institutions, extant power structures,

and continued economic growth


19/22

Strategies for Marketizing Global Environmental Governance

1) Market solutions:

The exchange of pollutionrights through the market

Ecological taxation Enviromental labelling

2) Private regulation

There is a privileging of private forms of regulation/self-regulation bybusiness/industry A clear policy preference for voluntary, flexible and

market-based forms of regulation such as environmental codes ofconduct and private standard setting

This also entail the emergence of hybrid and multi-scalar forms ofgovernance where both state and private actors are involved Thisraises issues of (a) accountability and (b) efficiency

3) Property rights:

Use of private property rights toincentivize environmental action

Natural resources worthless unless they

have economic value, and to havevalue they must be allocated in terms

of private property

This is occurring in a context where environmental policy instruments are

increasingly questioned in terms of their impact on global trade regimes


20/22

Driving forces in the marketization of environmental governance

Market discipline and

business lobbying

Ideology of the powerless

state Significance oftransnational institutions

Significance of economists/

economic models in environmentaldecision-making

a potent combination of material, institutional, and

discursive forces combine to advance the marketizationof environmental policy

the causes of environmental degradation emanatingfrom global economic processes are increasingly

protected from policy interference

Peter Newell


21/22

Is Climate Capitalism a Solution?

strategies and actions to tackle climate change have to gain tractionwith social forces and actors that wield significant power within

contemporary forms of capitalism

Newell/Paterson

Carbon markets can play a co-ordinating role in shaping theglobal economy towardsdecarbonization particularly

by providing system-wideincentives for business groups

There is a need to construct a coalition of forces that can overcomeresistance from climate change skeptics which entails negotiation

with powerful sectors of the economy

Resistance to carbon-markets hasto proceed from within the system

in order to bring about betterfunctioning markets and

commitment from industry/business

A political project centred on the projection and reinforcement of commonsense ideas about the efficiency of markets as vehicles for reducing

emissions and the creation of a constituency of business actors with aninterest in low carbon development and functioning carbon markets


22/22

4. Alf Gunvald Nilsen - Capitalism, Nature and Climate Change

Documents

Transcript of 4. Alf Gunvald Nilsen - Capitalism, Nature and Climate Change