As representatives of people’s movements and independent organisations, we reject the claim that
carbon trading will halt the climate crisis. This crisis has been caused more than anything else by
the mining of fossil fuels and the release of their carbon to the oceans, air, soil and living things.
This excessive burning of fossil fuels is now jeopardising Earth’s ability to maintain a liveable
climate.

Governments, export credit agencies, corporations and international financial institutions continue
to support and finance fossil fuel exploration, extraction and other activities that worsen global
warming, such as forest degradation and destruction on a massive scale, while dedicating only
token sums to renewable energy. It is particularly disturbing that the World Bank has recently
defied the recommendation of its own Extractive Industries Review which calls for the phasing
out of World Bank financing for coal, oil and gas extraction.

We denounce the further delays in ending fossil fuel extraction that are being caused by corporate,
government and United Nations’ attempts to construct a “carbon market”, including a market
trading in “carbon sinks”.

History has seen attempts to commodify land, food, labour, forests, water, genes and ideas.
Carbon trading follows in the footsteps of this history and turns the earth’s carbon-cycling
capacity into property to be bought or sold in a global market. Through this process of creating a
new commodity – carbon - the Earth’s ability and capacity to support a climate conducive to life
and human societies is now passing into the same corporate hands that are destroying the climate.

People around the world need to be made aware of this commodification and privatization and
actively intervene to ensure the protection of the Earth’s climate.

Carbon trading will not contribute to achieving this protection of the Earth’s climate. It is a false
solution which entrenches and magnifies social inequalities in many ways:

– The carbon market creates transferable rights to dump carbon in the air, oceans, soil and
vegetation far in excess of the capacity of these systems to hold it. Billions of dollars worth
of these rights are to be awarded free of charge to the biggest corporate emitters of
greenhouse gases in the electric power, iron and steel, cement, pulp and paper, and other
sectors in industrialised nations who have caused the climate crisis and already exploit
these systems the most. Costs of future reductions in fossil fuel use are likely to fall
disproportionately on the public sector, communities, indigenous peoples and individual
taxpayers.

– The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as well as many private
sector trading schemes, encourage industrialised countries and their corporations to finance
or create cheap carbon dumps such as large-scale tree plantations in the South as a
lucrative alternative to reducing emissions in the North. Other CDM projects, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) -reduction schemes, focus
on end-of pipe technologies and thus do nothing to reduce the impact of fossil fuel
industries’ impacts on local communities. In addition, these projects dwarf the tiny volume
of renewable energy projects which constitute the CDM’s sustainable development
window-dressing.

– Impacts from fossil-fuel industries and other greenhouse-gas producing industries such as
displacement, pollution, or climate change, are already disproportionately felt by small
island states, coastal peoples, indigenous peoples, local communities, fisherfolk, women,
youth, poor people, elderly and marginalized communities. CDM projects intensify these
impacts in several ways. First, they sanction continued exploration for, and extraction,
refining and burning of fossil fuels. Second, by providing finance for private sector
projects such as industrial tree plantations, they appropriate land, water and air already
supporting the lives and livelihoods of local communities for new carbon dumps for
Northern industries.

– The refusal to phase out the use of coal, oil and gas, which is further entrenched by carbon
trading, is also causing more and more military conflicts around the world, magnifying
social and environmental injustice. This in turn diverts vast resources to military budgets
which could otherwise be utilized to support economies based on renewable energies and
energy efficiency.

In addition to these injustices, the internal weaknesses and contradictions of carbon trading are in
fact likely to make global warming worse rather than “mitigate” it. CDM projects, for instance,
cannot be verified to be “neutralizing” any given quantity of fossil fuel extraction and burning.

Their claim to be able to do so is increasingly dangerous because it creates the illusion that
consumption and production patterns, particularly in the North, can be maintained without
harming the climate.

In addition, because of the verification problem, as well as a lack of credible regulation, no one in
the CDM market is likely to be sure what they are buying. Without a viable commodity to trade,
the CDM market and similar private sector trading schemes are a total waste of time when the
world has a critical climate crisis to address.

In an absurd contradiction the World Bank facilitates these false, market-based approaches to
climate change through its Prototype Carbon Fund, the BioCarbon Fund and the Community
Development Carbon Fund at the same time it is promoting, on a far greater scale, the continued
exploration for, and extraction and burning of fossil fuels – many of which are to ensure increased
emissions of the North.

In conclusion, ‘giving carbon a price’ will not prove to be any more effective, democratic, or
conducive to human welfare, than giving genes, forests, biodiversity or clean rivers a price.

We reaffirm that drastic reductions in emissions from fossil fuel use are a pre-requisite if we are
to avert the climate crisis. We affirm our responsibility to coming generations to seek real
solutions that are viable and truly sustainable and that do not sacrifice marginalized communities.

We therefore commit ourselves to help build a global grassroots movement for climate justice,
mobilize communities around the world and pledge our solidarity with people opposing carbon
trading on the ground.

Signed 10 October 2004

Glenmore Centre, Durban, South Africa

DURBAN MEETING SIGNATORIES

Carbon Trade Watch

Indigenous Environmental Network

Climate & Development Initiatives, Uganda

Coecoceiba-Amigos de la Tierra, Costa Rica

CORE Centre for Organisation Research &
Education, Manipur, India

Delhi Forum, India

Earthlife Africa (ELA) eThekwini Branch, South
Africa

FERN, EU

FASE-ES/Green Desert Network Brazil

Global Justice Ecology Project, USA

groundwork, South Africa

National Forum of Forest People And Forest
Workers(NFFPFW), India

Patrick Bond, Professor, University of
KwaZulu Natal School of Development
Studies, South Africa

O le Siosiomaga Society, Samoa

South Durban Community Alliance (SDCEA),
South Africa

Sustainable Energy & Economy Network, USA

The Corner House, UK

Timberwatch Coalition, South Africa

World Rainforest Movement, Uruguay

SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONAL SIGNATORIES

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic
Justice, USA
Aficafiles, Canada
Africa Groups of Sweden, Sweden
Alianza Verde, Honduras
Ambiente y Sociedad, Argentina
Angikar Bangladesh Foundation, Bangladesh
Anisa Colombia, Colombia
Asociacion Alternativa Ambiental, Spain
Asociacion Amigos Reserva Yaguaroundi, Argentina
Asociacion de Guardaparques Argentinos, Argentina
Asociación Ecologista Piuke, Argentina
Asociacion para la Defensa del Medio Ambiente del Noreste
Santafesino, Argentina
Asociación San Francisco de Asís, Argentina
Association France Amerique Latine, France
Associacion Lihue San Carlos de Barloche / Rio Negro, Argentina
Association pour un contrat mondial de l’eau, Comité de Seine Saint
Denis, France
Associação Caeté - Cultura e Natureza, Brasil
Athlone Park Residents Association, South Africa
Austerville Clinic Committee, South Africa
Australian Greens, Australia
Aukland Rising Tide, New Zealand
BanglaPraxis, Bangladesh
Benjamin E. Mays Center, USA
Bluff Ridge Conservancy (BRC), South Africa
BOA, Venezuela
Boulder Environmental Activists Resource, Rocky Mountain
Peace and Justice Center, USA
The Bread of Life Development Foundation, Nigeria
CENSAT-Friends of the Earth Colombia, Colombia
Center for Economic Justice, USA
Centre for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka
Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights Inc./
Friends of the Earth (PNG), Papua New Guinea
Center for Urban Transformation, USA
Centro de Derecho Ambiental y Promoción para el Desarrollo
(CEDAPRODE), Nicaragua
Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan A.C., Mexico
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, USA
Christ the King Church Group, South Africa
Clairwood Ratepayers Association (CRA), South Africa
Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers, USA
Colectivo de Proyectos Alternativos de México (COPAL), Mexico
Colectivo MadreSelva, Guatemala
Comité de Análisis “Ana Silvia Olán” de Sonsonate –
CANASO,El Salvador
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, USA
Community Health Cell, Bangalore, India
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Netherlands
C.P.E.M. No29-Ciencias Ambientales, Argentina
Del Consejo de Organizaciones de Médicos y Parteras
Indígenas Tradicionales de Chiapas, Mexico
Enda América Latina, Colombia
ECOGRAIN, Spain
Ecoisla, Puerto Rica
EarthLink e.V.-The People & Nature Network, Germany
Ecological Society of the Philippines, Philippines
Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
Ecoportal.net, Argentina
ECOTERRA International
El Centro de Ecología y Excursionismo de la Universidad de
Carabobo, Venezuela
Els Verds - Alternativa Verda, Spain
Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF), France
Environment Desk of Images Asia, Thailand
FASE Gurupá, Brasil
Forest Peoples Programme, UK
Foundation for Grassroots Initiatives in Africa, Ghana
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth Australia, Australia
Friends of the Siberian Forests, Russia
FSC-Brasil, Brasil
Fundación Argentina de Etoecología (FAE), Argentina
Fundación Los de Tilquiza, proyecto AGUAVERDE, Argentina
Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherche sure les Energies
Renouvelables et l’Environnement (GERERE), Morocco
Gruppo di Volontariato Civile (GVC-Italia), oficina de
Nicaragua, Nicaragua
House of Worship, South Africa
Indigenous Peoples’ Biodiversity Network, Peru
InfoNature, Portugal
Infringement Festival, Canada
Iniciativa ArcoIris de Ecologia y Sociedad, Argentina
Iniciativa Radial, Argentina
Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project, USA
Instituto Ecoar para Cidadania, Brasil
Instituto Igaré, Brasil
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Belgium
International Indian Treaty Council
Isipingo Environmental Committee (IEC), South Africa
Isipingo Ratepayers Association, South Africa
Jeunesse Horizon, Camerun
JKPP /Indonesian Community Mapping Network, Indonesia
Joint Action Committee of Isipingo (JACI), South Africa
KVW Translations, Spain
LOKOJ, Bangladesh
London Rising Tide, UK
Malvarrosamedia, Spain
Mangrove Action Project (MAP), USA
Mano Verde, Colombia
Mercy International Justice Network, Kenya
Merebank Clinic Committee (MCC), South Africa
Movimiento por la Paz y el Ambiente, Argentina
Movimento por los Derechos y la Consulta Ciudadana, Chile
Nicaragua Center for Community Action, USA,
Nicaragua Network (US), USA
Nicaragua-US Friendship Office, USA
NOAH-Friends of the Earth Denmark, Denmark
Núcleo Amigos da Terra, Brasil
Ogoni Rescue Patriotic Fund, Nigeria
Oilwatch International, Ecuador
Oilwatch Africa, Nigeria
Organizacion Fraternal Negra Honduirena, Honduras
Parque Provincial Ernesto Tornquist, Argentina
Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition
(PIPEC),Aotearoa/New Zealand
Pesticides Action Network Latin America, Uruguay
Piedad Espinoza Trópico Verde, Guatemala
PovoAção, Brasil
Prideaux Consulting, USA
Projeto tudo Sobre Plantas - Jornal SOS Verde, Brasil
Public Citizen, USA
Rainforest Action Network, USA
Rainy River First Nations, Canada
Reclaim the Commons, USA
Red de Agricultura Orgánica de Misiones, Argentina
REDES-Amigos de la Tierra, Uruguay
Red Verde, Spain
Rettet den Regenwald, Germany
Rising Tide, UK
Sahabat Alam Malaysia /FOE-Malaysia, Malaysia
San Francisco Bay Area Jubilee Debt Cancellation Coalition,
USA
Scottish Education and Action for Development, UK
S.G.Fiber, Pakistan
Silverglen Civic Association (SCA), South Africa
Sisters of the Holy Cross - Congregation Justice Committee, USA
Sobrevivencia, Friends of the Earth Paraguay, Paraguay
Sociedad Civil, Mexico
SOLJUSPAX, Philippines
Tebtebba Foundation, Philippines
The Sawmill River Watershed Alliance, USA
TRAPESE – Take Radical Action Through Popular Education
and Sustainable Everything, UK / Spain
Treasure Beach Environmental Forum (TBEF), South Africa
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, Uganda
Ujamaa Community Resource Trust (UCRT), Tanzania
UNICA, Nicaragua
Union Chrétienne pour l’Education et Développement des
Déshérités (UCEDD), Burundi
Union Mexicana de Emprendedores Inios, A. C., Mexico
VALL DE CAN MASDEU, Spain
Wentworth Development Forum (WDF), South Africa
Western Nebraska Resources Council, USA
World Bank Boycott/Center for Economic Justice, USA
worldforests, UK
World Peace Prayer Society, USA

Individual Signatories

Aarran Thomson, USA
Ángeles Leonardo, Argentina
Arlex González Herrera, Colombia
Beth Burrows, USA
Dr. Bob de Laborde, South Africa
Brook Goldzwig, USA
Cesar Antonio Sanchez Asian, Peru
Christopher Keene, UK
Cláudia Sofia Pereira Henriques, Portugal
Claudio Capanema, Brasil
Daniel Tietzer, USA
Dany Mahecha Rubio, The Netherlands
Dora Fernandes, Portugal
Dulce Delgado, Portugal
Eduardo Rojas Hidalgo, Ecuador
Edwin S. Wilson, USA
Eileen Wttewaal, Canada
Elisa Marques, Portugal
Emmanuel Moutondo, Kenya
Fabry Saavedra, Bolivia
Federico Ivanissevich, Argentina
Florencia T. Cuesta, Argentina
Florian Salazar-Martin, France
Fernando Moran, Spain
Fernando Guzmán, Peru
Gar W. Lipow, USA
German A. Parra Bustamente, Colombia
Hannes Buckle, South Africa
Hansel Tietzer, USA
Helena Pinheiro, Brasil
Dr. Hugh Sanborn, USA
Hylton Alcock, South Africa
Hsun-Yi Hsieh, Taiwan
Inês Vaz Rute da Conceição, Portugal
Irina Maya, Portugal
Dr. J. Gabriel Lopez,, USA
James Mabbitt, UK
Jane Hendley, USA
Janet Weyker,USA
Javier Lizarraga, Uruguay
Jeff Purcell, USA
Jelena Ilic, Serbia & Montenegro
Jenny Biem, Canada
Joana Gois, Portugal
Joao Forte, Portugal
John Brabant, USA
Jonathan Derouchie, Canada
Joris Leemans, Belgium
Josep Puig, Spain
Joseph Herman, USA
Judith Amanthis, UK
Judith Vélez, Isla Verde, Puerto Rico
Karen Roothaan, USA
Karlee Rockey, USA
Kiki Goldzwig, USA
Laura Carlsen, IRC
Leonardo Ornella, Argentina
Lina Hällström, Sweden
Lorna Salzman, USA
Luis E. Silvestre, Puerto Rico
Luis Edoardo Sonzini Meroi, Nicaragua
Ing. Mabel Vullioud, Argentina
Manuel Pereira, Portugal
Marcelo Bosi de Almeida, Brasil
Maria Benedetti, Cayey, Puerto Rico
Maria de Fátima Marques, Portugal
Maria Fernanda Pereira, Colombia
María Jesús Conde, Spain
Dra. María Luisa Pfeiffer, Argentina
Martha L. Downs, USA
Dr. Martin Mowforth, UK
Mary Galvin, South Africa
Matheus Ferreira Matos Lima, Brasil
Maurice Tsalefac, Professor, Université de Yaoundé, Camerun
Michaeline Falvey, USA
Miguel Parra Olave, Chile
Mike Ballard, Australia
Mike Berry, UK
Nick Gotts, Scotland
Norbert Suchanek, Germany
Nuno Miguel O. P. Matos Sequeira, Portugal
Oya Akin, North Cyprus
Pablo Alarcón-Cháires, Mexico
Patrícia Angelo Batista, Portugal
Patricia Raynor, USA
Paulo Cesar Scarim, Brasil
Pedro Ribeiro, Portugal
Peter Rachleff, Professor, Macalester College, USA
Peter Sills, USA
Dr. Philip Gasper, USA
Prakash Deshmukh, India
Priscila Lins P. F. do Amaral, Brasil
Rafael Arturo Acuña Coaquira, Bolivia
Rafael Chumbimune Zanabria, Peru
Rafael Renteria, USA
Raj Patel, South Africa
Ray Hajat, Malawi
Robin Clanahan, South Africa
Roger de Andrade, France
Rogerio M Mauricio, Brasil
Roxana Mastronardi, Argentina
Ruth Zenger, Canada
Rufino Vivar Miranda, Mexico
Sajida Khan, South Africa
Sandra C. Carrillo, USA
Sara Hayes, USA
Saul Landau, USA
Sheila Goldner, USA
Sister Aloysia Zellmann, South Africa
Steve Wheeler, UK
Tobias Schmitt, Germany
Tyrell Haberkorn, USA
Usman Majeed, Canada
Wak Kalola, Canada
Zoraida Crespo Feliciano, Puerto Rico

See www.sinkswatch.org for up-to-date
list of supporting signatories