Zed Books The Corporate Greenhouse: Climate Change Policy in a Globalizing World

As the world begins the negotiations for the post-Kyoto climate change regime, there remains major obstacles to successful completion of this massive and urgent task. This timely book addresses the political economy of the climate change debate in the context of the changing geo-political order and current global shifts in production. The author questions the disconnect between the current nation-state based negotiation framework and the forces in the global economy that are: driven by neo-liberal policies; organized around transnational corporations or international production networks and; refute effective climate change policy. With the emergence on the world economic and carbon scene of China and India and several other developing economies, the debate on who is to blame, and who is to pay can no longer be ignored.Carefully researched and sourced from original work and case studies, 'The Corporate Greenhouse' explores the geo-political division between 'North' and 'South'; asks if capitalism is sustainable in the neo-liberal economic environment of the Washington Consensus, the World Bank/IMF, and the WTO; examines the impact of foreign direct investment, international trade and transnational corporations on worldwide CO2 emissions; and discusses the expected outcome of the EU-ETS on corporate investment strategies and the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism. The author argues that, given the dynamics of the global economy, climate change negotiations can no longer exist in an economic vacuum and the failure to more fully account for activities of transnational corporations in climate change treaties will preclude effective and equitable solutions to the severe and urgent issues of global climate change. Review 'Attempts to slow the relentless rise in greenhouse gas emissions, so bravely begun in 1992, have almost completely failed, and the world now faces an urgent climate crisis. In The Corporate Greenhouse, Yda Schreuder makes a closely argued case that a primary reason for this failure is that policy makers have failed to address fully the real conditions of the global economy, where power has increasingly been in the hands of transnational corporations rather than governments and the peoples they are supposed to represent. In the wake of the global financial crisis and in the early days of a new U.S. administration, this book offers valuable insights into what has gone wrong with climate policy in the past, and where solutions may lie.' --Caspar Henderson'What a timely book. By situating the debate on climate negotiations in the broader context of globalisation, liberalisation and intensified competition, the text highlights the ambiguous roles that corporations are playing in shaping the prospects for and the impacts of climate change agreements. This book highlights how, with the right sort of global deal and appropriate frameworks for global governance, corporations could play a much more active role in the search for solutions.' --Prof Andy Gouldson, Co-Director - Sustainability Research Institute Director - ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds'Schreuder authoritatively surveys the political and economic hurdles facing efforts to reduce carbon emissions, establish carbon-trading schemes, and combat slow global warming-with special emphasis on the roles and responsibilities of transnational corporations. I recommend it highly: it is vital, insightful reading for anyone interested in carbon trading, climate mitigation, international relations, and the pervasive role of mega-corporations in our world today.' --William F. Laurance, Senior Research Scientist, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama About the Author Yda Schreuder, PhD, is a professor in Geography and a researcher and graduate student advisor in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware,