Climate Activists Invade DC Offices of Environmental Defense

Washington, DC (12/01/08)- As the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change opened
today in Poznan, Poland, grassroots climate activists took over the
Washington DC office of Environmental Defense. The activists stated that
they had targeted ED, one of the largest environmental organizations in the
world, because of the organization’s key role in promoting the discredited
approach of carbon trading as a solution to climate change.

Dr. Rachel Smolker of Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest
Coalition read a statement, which said in part, “My father was one of the
founders of this organization, which sadly I am now ashamed of. The Kyoto
Protocol, the European Emissions Trading Scheme and virtually every other
initiative for reducing emissions have adopted their market approaches. So
far they have utterly failed, serving only to provide huge profits to the
world’s most polluting industries. Instead of protecting the environment, ED
now seems primarily concerned with protecting corporate bottom lines. I can
hear my father rolling over in his grave.”

The activists rearranged furniture in the office, illustrating how marketing
carbon is “like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Others held
signs reading “Keep the cap, ditch the trade” and “Carbon trading is an
environmental offense.”

Leo Cerda, an indigenous activist with Rising Tide Ecuador said, “ED wants
to turn the atmosphere and forests into private property, and then give it
away to the most polluting industries in the form of pollution allowances
that can be bought and sold. Not only is this an ineffective way to control
emissions, it is also a disaster for the poor and indigenous peoples who are
not party to these markets and are most impacted by climate change.”

ED has been key in establishing the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a
business consortium advocating for a cap and trade system with extremely
weak emissions reductions. US CAP allows polluters like Duke Energy, Shell,
BP, DuPont, and Dow Chemical to claim they are green while continuing with
business as usual. In recognition, activists awarded ED the “Corporate
Greenwash Award,” a three foot tall green paintbrush. “We think this award
is appropriate since Environmental Defense spends more time painting
polluters green than actually defending the environment,” said Matt Wallace
of Rising Tide North America.

Opposition to carbon trading is growing as it becomes apparent that market
based schemes do little to fight climate change while helping corporations
rake in profits. Earlier this year, over 50 groups came together in the US
to denounce carbon trading in a Declaration Against the Use of Carbon
Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change. Globally, hundreds of
environmental, social justice, and indigenous groups have come together to
oppose such market based initiatives as inherently unsustainable and
ineffective in creating a just transition away from fossil fuels.