Carbon Trading
How It Works and Why It Fails

This short book shows why carbon trading -- an approach to tackling climate change that redefines the problem to fit the assumptions of neoliberal economics -- must fail. Tackling both the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Kyoto Protocol, the book also presents detailed case studies from Brazil, Indonesia, India and Thailand. Arguing that carbon trading must be abandoned, it presents a plethora of alternatives while emphasizing that there are no short cuts around situated local knowledge and political organising if climate change is to be addressed in a just and fair manner.

"Anyone who still thinks that creating a carbon casino can solve our climate crisis owes it to themselves to read this book," says Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine. "The most convincing and concise challenge to the green profiteers yet." According to noted Delhi journalist Praful Bidwai, the book tells a "scandalous story of economic dogma, government-business collusion, windfall profits, and promotion of emissions-intensive growth, compounded by speculative sub-prime trading and creation of divisions within vulnerable communities."

The PDF here is a low-resolution (0.85MB) version of the book. A high resolution version (8.5MB), in which photographs are clearer, is available from the website of the publisher, the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, as are the five individual chapters. 

The book is also available in Spanish and in German.