An investigation carried out by the British newspaper The Guardian with researchers from the non-profit transnational observatory Corporate Accountability, based in the United States, analyzed the 50 primary emissions offsetting projects that sell carbon credits on the global market and concluded that the majority of credits sold could be classified as “junk” as they do …
After more than two decades of delay, ineffectiveness, excuses, and corporate capture and policy interference, along with the failure of international climate negotiations, climate litigation offers an alternative path. It has the potential to force polluting industries to cease operations, provide reparations for damages, and safeguard the rights of vulnerable communities—in a short period of …
This term refers to the management and care that community networks provide to sustain life, land and the commons in relationships of interdependence between people and Earth. Communities hold wisdom about their territories: they are acquainted with their needs and implement technologies that yield real solutions for sustainable care, regeneration, repair, and growth. Community land …
A just, people-centered energy transition is a process of changing the current energy system—and, therefore, the capitalist system— into one that can be considered of and by the people. It means transformation based on collective, democratic decision-making, allowing changes in how energy is produced and consumed, to overcome the energy and climate crisis that make …
Food sovereignty is a concept coined by Via Campesina and discussed at the World Food Summit of 1996. It posits that peoples, countries, and groups of countries have the right to to determine their own food and agricultural policies. Food sovereignty prioritizes agricultural production that feeds people; access to land, seeds, and loans; responsible and …
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognizes programs that reduce, reuse, and recycle municipal waste as effective and high-impact methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The fundamental principle of zero waste solutions is that we should safely return everything we produce and consume to nature or society. We need to adopt principles of material conservation, …
This term refers to a set of national and international regulations developed to “attract” transnational corporations and national investors to particular countries or locations and guarantee long-term profit for their operations. Historically, these regulations have always been imposed through circumventing and manipulating democratic processes, overruling national constitutions against the will of the people. They have …
Greenwashing is the false “environmental-ification” of the commodification of life. It is a rhetorical strategy that fetishizes goods as ‘“green’” —while concealing the externalized environmental impacts of extractivism and accumulation by dispossession that characterize goods produced under capitalism. Greenwashing consists of deceptive advertising that attempts to convince the public to buy supposedly environmentally-friendly products. Greenwashing, …
As long as there are historical and differentiated responsibilities for the climate crisis between (poorly labeled) “developed” and “developing” countries, actions and contributions must take this differentiation into account. However, this “right” is frequently used to justify ecologically and socially disastrous policies. With respect to climate, the right to development is used to avoid taking …
Corporations deliberately and intentionally work to ensure that decisions made in national and multilateral regulatory spaces are designed to protect their interests and allow their extractivist and polluting activities to continue—thus securing their steady flow of profits. By the same token, States and decision-makers have an interest in protecting the investments of private and transnational …
