Comments on: Why we need a fair trade campaign for carbon

By: Rachel Godfrey Wood

Rachel Godfrey Wood — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:48:16 +0000

There is certainly a place for a campaign in developed countries to demand lower carbon goods, but we cannot be naive about the potential of this, or ignore the fact that it could still be potentially problematic. The basic point to make is that the number of consumers actually willing to pay more, either for fair trade or low carbon goods, is a small niche of the population. Even the most ethically aware of consumers find it extremely hard to decide which goods are the most ethically appropriate to buy (for example, focusing exclusively on food miles could overlook the risk that this could pose to livelihoods dependent on food exports in developing countries). Moreover, one might question the extent to which corporations could be trusted to genuinely bring about an improvement of standards in their supply chains (there have been numerous scandals where companies have failed to implement their own guidelines effectively). Ultimately, this issue can only be resolved with cooperation with the likes of the Chinese government, increased efforts to transfer technology to developing countries, and efforts to prove that this whole debate is being driven by environmental integrity, rather than ‘green protectionism’.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:29:18 +0000

Fair Trade Goods are increasingly popular in Westernised societies because there is increasing awareness that we in the West are able to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Unfortunatlely, the global recession has led to people watching there purse strings a little more and fair trade has suffered as a result.

By: From Poverty to Power by Duncan Green » Blog Archive » Good and bad ideas on climate change; soccer for Americans; contradictory views; bad Canada; mobile banking; what motivates people? Links I liked

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:28:42 +0000

[...] Bank-supported mega coal-fired electricity plant in South Africa and has some good ideas for a ‘Carbon Trading Initiative’ to reduce carbon emissions in supply [...]

By: David

David — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:58:44 +0000

Interesting to read that the Chinese government is apparently one step closer to levying a carbon tax as part of its next five-year plan (2011-15), which could be seen as a means to dissuade the US and others from thinking about imposing border tax adjustments on high carbon imports (under the Kerry-Lieberman bill for instance, BT provisions could be phased in so long as there continues to be no tangible global climate agreement in sight)

I agree on your point about the need to push for decarbonisation of supply chains, but the extent to which this is achieveable surely depends on the product in question? Electrical equipment accounted for the largest volume of Chinese exports to the US in 2009 and I imagine its relatively simple to green production of computer and telecommunication parts. But its much more difficult and costly to reduce the co2 intensity of iron and steel, which, combined, were still worth some $8 billion in Chinese exports to the US in 2009, despite a recession-induced drying up of global demand.

By: Reg Platt

Reg Platt — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:54:38 +0000

Well observed to link consumption imbalances directly to negotiating positions.

Different tack, but worth noting changing trends in thinking on consumption in the UK – away from excessive consumerism and towards finding some other value in what we buy. Rise in entrepreneurs finding ways to use the spare capacity in products – e.g. the neigbours car when they are away http://www.whipcar.com/. Still small at the moment but likely to grow in significance as energy prices and cost of living go higer and stay higher. John Grant’s work is an interesting place to start on this – http://www.coopp.net/

but this won’t make a dent on the embedded carbon in international trade so an interesting piece