Trouble in the Air
Global Warming and the Privatised Atmosphere

by Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada (editors)

first published 20 October 2005

This volume edited by South African activists outlines some of the practical threats to public well-being and climatic stability that arise from the growing fashion for carbon trading.

Starting with overviews of the problems with pollution trading and South Africa's energy system, the book passes on to a selection of articles about the country's current debate over carbon trading.

A third section provides rich empirical detail about the fraudulence and injustice of various projects planned for South Africa under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism with the assistance of the World Bank and other agencies.

The book's fourth section, including a conribution co-authored by The Corner House, puts the South African debate in a wider context, providing background about carbon trading's US origins, colonialist consequences, and ineffectiveness in contributing to climate change mitigation.

A fifth section shows how the oil industry benefits from carbon trading, to the detriment of the African people, while a final section contains key recent documents from the carbon trading debate.

The book is published by the Centre for Civil Society (South Africa) and the Transnational Institute (The Netherlands)

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