Carbon Colonialism: How Rich Countries Export Climate Breakdown

by Laurie Parsons

Around the world, leading economies are announcing significant progress on climate change. World leaders are queuing up to proclaim their commitment to tackling the climate crisis, pointing to data that shows the progress they have made. Yet the atmosphere is still warming at a record rate, with devastating effects on poverty and precarity in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Are we being deceived?

Climate change is devastating the planet, and globalisation is hiding it. This book opens our eyes.

Carbon colonialism explores the murky practices of outsourcing a country’s environmental impact, where emissions and waste are exported from rich countries to poorer ones; a world in which corporations and countries are allowed to maintain a clean, green image while landfills in the world’s poorest countries continue to expand, and droughts and floods intensify under the auspices of globalisation, deregulation and economic growth.

Taking a wide-ranging, culturally engaged approach to the topic, the book shows how this is not only a technical problem, but a problem of cultural and political systems and structures – from nationalism to economic logic – deeply embedded in our society.

Genres: Politics, Environment, Economics, Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published May 23, 2023

Reviews

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on a series of personal experiences of the author throughout the years of their research in climate and environmental impact in Cambodia, the author reflects on the existing economic dynamics behind environmental destruction and exposes climate policy flaws.

I see two main takes from the book. The first is that the fight for climate and environmental justice is a fight for economic equality. Stated in many arguments, and most of chapter 5, all the way up to debunked Myths #1 and #4 in the final chapter. The second is that climate science needs an additional approach similar to social sciences.

"Rather than just high walls to protect against impending catastrophe, it is economic justice that we need (Ch. 8, p. 198)"

The book states that the climate policy is strongly aligned with economic power (the quality of data that supports policy as well as the infrastructure required to enforce it is disproportionately present in wealthier nations).
Putting a curb to climate change is really just putting a curb to the unhinged environmental destruction that globalization has created.

"the way we talk about the impacts of climate change is not well suited to incorporating this kind of detail. Climate change is a phenomenon born in a spreadsheet, so when it comes to measuring it, everything derives from the large-scale statistics to underpin it." (Ch. 8, p. 197)

The author pushes for a perspective of the climate emergency closer to a social sciences one than the economic perspective that is often times used to approach the problem and design solutions (which hints to me that the same division might occur at the core of environmental movements). A vision that promotes the individual stories instead of overarching narratives ("Yet what is so important about personal experience of global problems is its capacity to challenge grand narratives of environment and development" ch. 8, p. 180).
It promotes no real actions other than listening to the stories of the underprivileged and with less access to the scientific tools. Also that scientists need to recognize the bias that exists in the fact that the quality and quantity of data that they can access is strongly dependent on the economic dynamics of the environments (e.g. weather data quality varies with the wealth of states).

The hottest take in the book, in my opinion, is

"the idea that the global aggregation of small-scale collective action is the key to 'solving' climate change is perhaps the single biggest roadblock to effective action on climate breakdown." (ch. 4, p. 79)

Efforts must be systemic, and domestic accounting for environmental impact is not enough, since imports play a major role. The metrics need to be about consumption. Accounting for remote supply chains is harder, as stated on chapter 3.
IMO, the idea of egalitarian responsibility, small scale solutions, and individualization of the solution (which links to neo-liberal practices exposed by Naomi Klein on Doppelganger ) are pernicious to the cause. Economic agents need to be held accountable for their decisions of supply chains.

"frameworks that legitimate the exploitation of one environment for the benefit of another are colonial." (ch. 4, p. 94)

Therefore the action point from the author is to demand better regulation, that considers the environment impact of consumption - not just production - (which is already a talking point in environment movements these days) as consumption takes into consideration the impact of the whole chain of production.

Environmental impact accounting must not stop at each countries borders. Outsourcing polluting production chains to countries with weaker environmental regulations and less resources for oversight (as the UK had done over the past decades) is a great way to meet national metrics but terrible for the environment at large.

Overall, a great read, that helped me mature my thoughts about this subject.

[An · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not an exhaustive discussion, it effectively highlights the role of several multinational conglomerates in exporting their environment extractive practices to the Global South. It also critiques how climate policies in the Global North fail to account for differing micro socio-economic contexts, which are disproportionately affected by climate catastrophes. Even though the global climate narrative promotes the idea of "everyone together" historically colonized countries suffer the most from rising climate disasters. The book also examines how MNCs use vague and legally unenforceable language in their climate pledges, misleading consumers while continuing to profit from environmental degradation in their build sites "the Global South". These corporations create the illusion of consumer power through sustainability rhetoric while in reality they evade accountability and continue exploitative practices.
I also appreciated the discussion on COP esp COP28’s Blue Zone, which is the official UN managed negotiation space where world leaders, policymakers, scientists, and accredited organizations discuss and draft global climate policies. While it serves as the core decision-making hub wealth disparity plays a significant role here too—poorer countries despite being the most severely impacted by climate disasters receive very little representation even in the world's biggest climate policymaking conferences

[KT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covering 15 years of the author's research and told through country case studies of Cambodia, Germany and to a lesser degree the UK and USA, the book does a good job of discussing the uneven effects of capitalist production, pollution and climate change


Particular highlights include discussing:

Dispelling the myth that individuals can consume the way out of climate breakdown and pollution by pointing to the small amounts of carbon emitted by individuals compared to the large amounts from capitalist production


Calculations under capitalism that export pollution and waste abroad from the global north to the global south that result in underreporting of actual pollution under production


The capitalist logic underpinning criticism of Bhutan's conservation of forests that whilst not explicitly contributing to GDP figures, contribute massively to carbon capture. Thus underlining global capitalism's rule that something is not used until it is owned, valued and paid for

[Mariasilvia Santi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most brilliant books I've ever read, hands down. It's clear, well-structured, backed by data, and beautifully written. Non-fiction yet with the compelling storytelling over the author's trips to Cambodia to get his PhD.
The crucial takeaway for me? 'Climate change has never been about underdeveloped technologies, but always about unequal power'. Boycotting fast fashion brands is equally important as reaching social justice and not leaving nobody behind. Believing that B Corps are undoubtedly good to the planet is misleading: is their whole supply chain fair to anyone and any natural resources involved, or they have only outsourced the more polluting parts to less rich countries perpetuating the colonizer-like mindset?

[Raymundo VR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable resource laying down the complexity of the climate disaster, its origins in colonialism, and the big myths around it, repeated over and over in rich countries, that distract from real action. IMHO, it falls a bit short on the analysis of global interconnections as it is too centered on a specific Asian region and activity.

[Paul Below · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting explanation of how climate reductions ostensibly achieved by developed countries are to appreciable degrees just exported to poorer countries. Valuable statistics backed by first hand experience of specific issues and situations. But too much climate change is left wing opposed by right wing etc. The concept of "carbon colonialism" is a catchy name but colonialism ? Really ?

[Andrew Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

My friend Evan would appreciate this book