The Global Political Ecology of the Clean Development Mechanism

• Published in: Global environmental politics Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 49 - 67
• Main Authors: Newell, Peter, Bumpus, Adam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209, USA MIT Press 01.11.2012; The MIT Press
• Subjects: Air pollution control; Argentina; Clean Development Mechanism; Decision-making; Ecology; Economic Development; Economics; Emission control; Environment; Governance; Government and politics; Greenhouse gases; Honduras; International Trade; Kyoto Protocol; Local Politics; Markets; Networks; Political Ecology; Political Economy; Politics; Production; Translation; Honduras; Argentina
• ISSN: 1526-3800; 1536-0091
• DOI: 10.1162/GLEP_a_00139

This article explores the ways in which the “global” governance of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) intersects with the “local” politics of resource regimes that are enrolled in carbon markets through the production and trade in Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs). It shows how political structures and decision-making procedures set up at the international level to govern the acquisition of CERs through the Kyoto Protocol's CDM interact with and transform national and local level political ecologies in host countries where very different governance structures, political networks, and state-market relations operate. It draws on literature within political ecology and field work in Argentina and Honduras to illustrate and understand the politics of translation that occur when the social and environmental consequences of decisions made within global governance mechanisms, such as the CDM, are followed through to particular sites in the global political economy. It also shows how the outcomes in those sites in turn influence the global politics of the CDM.