EJ Coalition Declaration Against Carbon Trading And Offset Released
Dateline:
02/19/2008On Tuesday, February 19, 2008, Environmental Justice (EJ) advocates gathered at 5 locations across California for a teleconference to discuss the release of The California Environmental Justice Movement's Declaration Against Use of Carbon Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change. The Declaration details the environmental justice community's opposition to the use of carbon trading and offsets to address climate change because of their failure to achieve actual emissions reductions, the irreconcilable problems with trading experiments and offset use, and because of their inability to cause a timely change in the way we make and use energy.
Rather, Environmental Justice advocates are calling for policies that focus on moving the state away from burning fossil fuels for energy because such fuels are the overwhelming contributor to climate change and have devastating impacts on poor, low-income and communities of color in California and around the world. The coalition supports use of transparent carbon pricing mechanisms such as a carbon fee.
Environmental Justice advocates from around the state as well as internationally known environmental expert, Larry Lohman from the UK (a founder of the international Durban Group and editor of Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power, which documents the numerous failures of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and oppression in the Global South from the use of carbon “offsets”), were on the call. The Declaration currently has support from organizations and individuals from throughout California and beyond. The Coalition urges others to join this Coalition to demand that California reject the fundamentally flawed trading and offsets approach but instead adopts policies that 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.
To get the full text of the declaration, to join the coalition, to subscribe to our new newsletter, for additional information about the failures of trading, learn about the problems with offset use, read about how carbon fees can help, and to hear the discussion, visit our new website at http://www.ejmatters.org
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