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It seemed like a good idea at the time....that's Goldman on the left
Whatever comes out of the Copenhagen feast won't really address how turbo-capitalism - a system that is a slave of oil - works. Most of real life as we know it essentially revolves around the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost - that is, China, the US and selected Middle East players.
It goes something like this. Middle East oil producers sell the oil that fuels an army of Chinese factories - especially the "factory of the world" in Guangdong province. These factories use the oil to produce virtually everything the world consumes - a great deal of which ends up in the US. American consumers buy all these products in department stores with maxed-out credit cards. Then Middle East oil magnates invest their surplus in the US itself. That's how selected Arab players - mostly sovereign wealth funds - became key US creditors.
As much as the US is hurt by the biggest unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, China will still need all this oil to move its economy, Arabs will still need to sell it, and Americans will still need to consume made in China products at Wal-Marts they drove to in their SUVs.
The Chinese are the least likely to rock this comfy boat. They will silently cut their emissions and keep growing at 9% a year anyway - following the famous Chinese proverb "speak little, do more" (shao shuo duo zuo).
So who will win in the end? Who else but Wall Street, if a mandatory carbon-trading system designed to "save the planet" ever sees the light of day. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley would make an absolute killing on a carbon trading market revolving around derivatives.
Be ready for a deluge of derivatives contracts and carbon-related financial products. Wall Street will attract key investors from hedge funds and pension funds - as it has already spent a fortune hiring lobbyists and making deals with companies that can supply "carbon offsets" to be sold to clients. Speculators will have a ball. Wall Street banks are bound to turn climate change into a new commodities market - and sell it as an investment product. Everyone has seen this movie before, but what the hell; welcome to the new trillion-dollar bubble - the still virtual carbon "cap and trade" market.
Big Oil - from Exxon Mobil to Shell and BP - along with a Fortune 500 cast of global corporations, many directly linked with Big Oil, will also make a killing. They want a direct global carbon tax - as Exxon Mobil has called for, on the record. This carbon trading system will link national "cap-and-trade" markets; the "caps" will be in line with the targets for emission reduction. This explains the "paradox" of Big Oil actually being in favor of fighting global warming.
It's hard to be astonished by the sight of Wall Street and Big Oil profiting handsomely from everything post-Copenhagen. Their proposed global carbon tax will hit everyone on the planet; but the beauty is that Wall Street and Big Oil won't have to pay for it. But, one might argue, why not, if the world's 1.5 billion cows will be taxed as well. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, cow "emissions" rank as a key cause of global warming. So despite all the white man's burden shenanigans, it seems that mammals may be finishing off the Mother Earth that humans had already practically destroyed - evolution theorist Charles Darwin would have loved it.
Pepe Escobar http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KL10Ad01.html
where is this guy when we need him
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