Surviving Capitalism (Not) : How heavy industry captured European climate policy

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, June 9, 2012

How heavy industry captured European climate policy

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

This article offers a review of schemes to reduce carbon emissions in Europe and illustrates once again how such efforts can never be effective under the private ownership of socially produced wealth--capitalism.

A brief study of its history, however, reveals that the ETS [EU Emissions Trading Scheme] has not only failed dramatically in its stated objective of reducing overall emissions, but has in fact ended up providing billions of euros in indirect subsidies to some of Europe’s most carbon-intensive industries.