Bücherbewertungen
Kuch, Declan. 2015. The Rise and Fall of Carbon Emissions Trading. Basingstoke, Vereinigtes Königreich:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Reviewed by Lars H. Gulbrandsen
Fridtjof Nansen Institute
Over the past decade, carbon emissions trading schemes have emerged at sub-
National, National, and regional levels in Europe, Nordamerika, and the Asia-
Pacific. In The Rise and Fall of Carbon Emissions Trading, Declan Kuch offers a
theoretically engaging and empirically rich account of the turn to carbon emis-
sions trading in Australia and internationally. Given that carbon trading con-
tinues to spread around the world, the notion of “rise and fall” might appear
misleading, but as Kuch explains it, it refers to the failure of emissions trading to
live up to expectations to “civilize markets” by cooling political conflicts, reduc-
ing dissent, and ultimately cutting emissions. According to Kuch, conventional
accounts of carbon trading fail to see the political interests, power struggles, Und
conflicts that always loom large in the measurement and calculation of carbon
emissions.
The book draws on and contributes to critical literatures on neoliberalism
and governmentality, the “technopolitics” of carbon trading schemes, and socio-
logical accounts of their operation. Insbesondere, the book builds on what the
author refers to as the performative turn in economic sociology, drawing on
the concepts of experimentation, framing, and overflows to develop a theoreti-
cally informed understanding of the politics of emissions trading.
The book offers several interesting case studies that individually and col-
lectively assess the prospects for emissions trading to civilize markets and cut
emissions. A case study of acid rain regulation in Europe and the United States
as an experimental “bridge” to carbon markets provides a critical account of the
turn to sulphur emissions trading in the United States and a more positive as-
sessment of the European development of the world’s first transboundary air
pollution treaty—the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
The perceived success of sulphur emissions trading was transferred to the issue of
climate change, facilitating the development of the New South Wales Greenhouse
Gas Abatement Scheme in Australia—the first regulatory carbon trading scheme
in der Welt. Kuch provides an in-depth account of the creation and operation of
this scheme, situating the development of the scheme in the Australian context
of electricity marketization and neoliberal political reforms, and showing how
economists used carbon offsets to generate accountable numbers.
Globale Umweltpolitik 17:2, Mai 2017
© 2017 vom Massachusetts Institute of Technology
152
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Lars H. Gulbrandsen
(cid:129) 153
The politics of carbon accounting is further examined in a case study of
land-use change accounting in Australia and internationally under the Kyoto
Protocol. Kuch skillfully documents “the deeply political nature of biomass ac-
counting” (P. 115). Far from being based on transparent and factual land-use
Berechnungen, carbon accounting relies on political decisions, bureaucratic expert
judgments, imprecise numbers, post-hoc audits, and sometimes guesswork.
Kuch shows that such decisions and judgments are also repeated at the inter-
national level when he investigates the construction and operation of the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol. He reveals the
underperformance of the CDM, mostly due to design flaws, limited scope, bureau-
cratic processes, and lack of “additionality” of emissions reductions achieved
through approved projects. In the final analysis, the CDM has not been the site
of international learning and critical reflection through collective experimentation
that many hoped it would be, but has rather “created a powerful new class of
bureaucratic experts” (P. 147) mediating competing demands from rich countries,
civil society groups, and host countries on carbon offset rulemaking and verifica-
tion, and evaluating carbon offsets in narrow economic terms.
Drawing together the findings from the case studies, Kuch argues that
the cumbersome and rigid carbon markets studied in the book have not been
created because of their efficiency, but rather because of their ability to garner
support from business groups and government actors and the near hegemonic
political authority of economists that shaped these markets. He exposes how
corporate lobbying during the making and implementation of emissions trad-
ing schemes in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere resulted in significant political
concessions to the fossil fuel industry. It is well known that power producers
and industry have exploited carbon accounting loopholes and free allocation
to gain windfall profits, but Kuch’s analysis goes one step further in demonstrat-
ing how the complexities of carbon accounting have created opportunities for
powerful corporate lobbies to protect their interests and profit from emissions
trading.
This is not a book of solutions, according to Kuch. Trotzdem, he offers
some suggestions about how to improve the governance of climate change miti-
gation. These suggestions are centered on civil society activism, grassroots action,
and other bottom-up measures, as well as socio-legal reforms. Examples include
community food initiatives, car-sharing initiatives, and other efforts along a
spectrum from activism to enterprise. These are welcome bottom-up initiatives
that will not make much of a difference unless they are supplemented with
effective domestic and international climate governance architectures. The book
is essentially better at explaining and criticizing policies than it is at pointing to
effective policy solutions. For readers not well-versed in sociological theory, Teile
of the book might also appear inaccessible and hard to follow. Perhaps this
inaccessibility and the lack of policy solutions in the book explain why envi-
ronmental economists, not critical social scientists, continue to dominate policy
debates and recommendations about climate change mitigation measures, als
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seen, Zum Beispiel, in the reports on mitigation from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC).
Its shortcomings aside, this book offers a comprehensive and compelling
account of the politics of carbon trading, calculation, and accounting. It should
be widely read, not least by environmental economists and decision-makers in
government. The only fear is that those who would benefit the most from
reflecting on its insights and policy implications would prefer to continue devel-
oping their models and policies without taking into account the worrying poli-
tics of carbon measurement and commodification.
Cramb, Rob A., and John F. McCarthy, Hrsg. 2016. The Oil Palm Complex: Smallholders,
Agribusiness and the State in Indonesia and Malaysia. Singapur: NUS Press.
Reviewed by Philip Schleifer
University of Amsterdam
The Oil Palm Complex offers a fascinating and detailed analysis of the oil palm
boom in Indonesia and Malaysia, one of the largest agricultural expansions in
recent history. Seit 1975 the amount of land under oil palm in the two coun-
tries has grown from about 500,000 hectares to over 14 million hectares. Der
book traces the drivers and socio-economic outcomes of this process, as part of a
multiyear research project. The central questions asked by Cramb and McCarthy,
using a political-economy approach, Sind: Who benefits and who loses from the
oil palm boom? And can oil palm development provide a basis for inclusive
and sustainable rural development?
The authors find the answer to these questions in analyzing what they
refer to as the “complexation” of the industry, which “skews the allocation of
resources and distribution of benefits in favor of a powerful cross-country co-
alition of political, bureaucratic, and agribusiness interests” (P. 443). The conclu-
sion they draw is that the oil palm boom has not contributed to inclusive and
sustainable development in the two countries. Andererseits, this boom has
been driven by an intraregional state-industrial complex that puts corporate
profits before people and the environment. Gleichzeitig, Jedoch, Die
authors contend that oil palm is not an “evil crop.” Its cultivation supports the
livelihoods of a growing number of smallholders, and Cramb and McCarthy
argue that giving these people access to technology, resources, and inputs is
important to make this a developmental success story.
In much detail, the contributors to this volume—including scholars, gov-
ernment officials, and activists—trace the politics and evolution of the oil palm
Komplex. Following the introductory chapter and a conceptual chapter, Die
first part of the book examines the different modes of oil palm production in
Indonesia and Malaysia. The chapters describe a “capitalist convergence” toward
groß, privately owned oil palm estates. A central argument is that the estate
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(cid:129) 155
mode is not per se more productive or efficient than smallholder farming. Wie-
immer, it delivers the highest returns on corporate investments. The chapters show
how national and local governments played a leading role in driving this pro-
cess by freeing up native land to attract big agribusiness corporations.
The second part of the book examines the various conflicts surrounding
the industry. An important insight is that local famers typically do not oppose
capitalist oil palm expansion as such. Stattdessen, most conflicts are distributional
in nature, involving struggles over land use and profits between corporations,
local communities, and migrant workers.
The final part of the book offers a detailed analysis of the political econ-
omy of labor that underpins the oil palm complex. It describes the strategy of
agribusinesses and state actors to create a situation of labor oversupply through
actively and passively supporting transmigration. This has the dual effect of
undermining the power of local communities and creating a highly dependent
and cheap labor force for the oil palm estates.
The Oil Palm Complex offers a rich analysis of these regional and local
processes and how they interact in producing political settlements and socio-
economic outcomes. This is the key strength of the book, but also one of its
Einschränkungen. Adopting a regional lens means that important global develop-
ments remain somewhat under the radar. Some of these issues are addressed
in a chapter on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a transnational private
regulatory initiative. Jedoch, key trends such as the booming demand for
palm oil from China and India and the emerging hybrid regulatory regime in
the European Union, another major importer of palm oil, are only mentioned
at the margins. These developments in the global political economy of palm
oil have important implications for producer countries—for example, as exter-
nal drivers of social and environmental conditions in the industry. Addressing
these issues more fully would have made the analysis more complete.
A second limitation of the book is that it largely neglects the environ-
mental dimension of the oil palm boom. While the authors recognize the im-
portance of the issue, a more thorough analysis is missing. The rapid expansion
of oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia has gone hand in hand with the large-
scale transformation and destruction of the natural environment. Processes like
tropical deforestation and the draining of peatlands are closely intertwined
with other factors analyzed in this volume. Environmentally degraded land-
scapes undermine the traditional livelihood strategies of local communities
and become the source of conflicts, with important regional and global reper-
Diskussionen, as witnessed during the 2015 Southeast Asian haze. The environment
is a key factor in the political economy of palm oil—shaping the interests and
interactions of agribusiness corporations, domestic and foreign governments,
native communities, and international and local NGOs. Bedauerlicherweise, Das
aspect of the oil palm complex and its politics remains mostly unaddressed.
These shortcomings do not diminish the value of this empirically rich
and well-written volume. Cramb, McCarthy, and their contributors provide a
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compelling analysis of the oil palm boom in Southeast Asia. This book is a must
read for scholars and practitioners interested in the development of the region
or the political economy of agricultural commodities.
Death, Carl. 2016. The Green State in Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Reviewed by Larry Swatuk
University of Waterloo
The Green State in Africa is a finely wrought study of the social, politisch, eco-
nomic, and environmental effects of the green-state discourse and practice on
the constitution of African states and societies. In Death’s words: “The green state
in Africa is the effect of an assemblage of environmental rationalities, discourses,
and technologies of government through which territories, Populationen, econo-
mies, and international relations have been brought within the scope of sedi-
mented power relations” (S. 15–16). This is a marvelous book, a must-read
for anyone interested in global environmental governance, African political econ-
omy, state theory, and the intersections of the three. It is densely theoretical yet
elegant in delivery and eminently readable. It is broad in scope but fine in detail.
Its text is complemented by a series of photographs, each of which perfectly
captures the mood of the particular chapters in which it appears. Trenchant epi-
grams set the tone for ensuing chapter-specific arguments. It has an extensive
bibliography and, importantly, a detailed index, which seems to be something
of a lost art these days.
The study is anchored by the interweaving of six key themes. Erste, Die
state is not a thing, but rather, following Foucault, a social form that “should
be studied as an assemblage of practices, technologies and discourses” (P. 56).
Zweite, the “green state” is not a particular “stage” of development, but rather a
“changing assemblage of practices, technologies and discourses” (P. 63). Dritte,
environmental politics constitutes the state in Africa in quite a different way
than in the rest of the world. Vierte, there is a great deal of agency amid per-
sistent structure, and this agency plays out unevenly across African states and
societies. Fünfte, there are winners and losers in African environmental politics,
so change on behalf of those (people and the natural environment) that are
most vulnerable is part of a (social/political/economic/ecological) struggle,
not a deliberate outcome of techniques of management. Sixth, there is a great
deal to be learned about the state in general, and the “green state” in particular,
from African places and cases.
At the heart of the study is a normative agenda: in exploding a number
of myths—among them, the unproblematic homogeneity of global environ-
mental governance, green states, the African state, African unity, und das
causes of African underdevelopment—Death aims to reveal the winners and
losers in African environmental politics, highlighting the limited but very real
ways in which the most vulnerable are able to exercise agency (by challenging,
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joining, and/or reframing dominant green discourses) to survivalist—never mind
“sustainable”—ends. In Death’s words, “If nothing else, this book aims to
convince that there are sites of resistance everywhere and that resistance is
fertile” (P. 18).
In support of his argument, the book proceeds in two distinct parts—one
theoretical, one empirical—with the earlier informing and shaping our under-
standing of the latter. In terms of theory, Death engages theories of the state,
green states, African states, and the green state in Africa. His preference is
for a critical approach arranged around a governmentality framework, Wo
“governmentality” is defined as “diverse micropractices of power which exist
broadly throughout society, not just in state institutions” (P. 57). This theoret-
ical perspective allows Death to explore the balance between agency and struc-
ture in the context of the African state. This is key to his analysis, since his goal
is not to dismiss the state but to show its relevance as well as its capacity for
meaningful change, dependent upon the interplay of the constellation of social
forces within the state, across the continent, and in the wider world. Reframing
Tilly’s famous phrase, Death states: “Transnational environmental governance
and monitoring makes African states” (P. 68). Aber, one must add, not neces-
sarily as these actors, forces, and factors intend.
Death’s empirical chapters examine the effects of green-state discourses on
the constitution of Africa’s states and societies, through four lenses: territories,
Populationen, economies, and international relations. Each of these chapters is
richly detailed, and so beyond the scope of this short review. An important com-
mon theme is that the “green state” in Africa is not of recent origin. Eher, es ist
“the effect of long-standing deep rooted endeavours to govern environmental
resources” (P. 59). For Death, the place and history of Africa in the global
political economy, as well as the specific historical constitution of African states
and societies, reflects the overwhelming centrality of resource governance in
state formation. Put differently, the “green state” is a new variation on an old
theme. In der Tat, he suggests that the “the future transnational green state [In
Africa] might, in some respects, have some family resemblances to the colonial
or authoritarian state” (P. 68).
Each chapter is informed by a similar primary question for investigation:
How do African states govern land and territory (Kapitel 3), people and popu-
lation (Kapitel 4), and economies and markets (Kapitel 5), and what are the
international relations of African states (Kapitel 6), as seen through the lens
of green discourses and practices? Death walks us across space and time to
explicate his answers. From Ethiopia to Senegal and Nigeria, from South Africa
to Kenya and Botswana, and in many places between, Death illustrates how
differently empowered actors have employed evolving discourses concern-
ing the governance of land, Wasser, and related resources, sometimes to their
advantage. Unsurprisingly, as he himself points out, what this analysis reveals
is that those best placed to take advantage of changing narratives regarding
“green-state” perspectives and practices—including transfrontier conservation
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Bereiche, green consumers, educated farmers, carbon sequestration proponents, Und
biofuel markets—are those already empowered. In relation to transcontinental
action in support of “green economies,” Death recognizes that the “solidarity of
African heads of state…is deeply problematic” (P. 278). Trotzdem, er argumentiert
that there remains space for positive change at a variety of scales.
This is a deeply reflexive project, encouraging the reader to question re-
ceived ideas at every turn, ultimately in the service of what Death calls critical
solidarities. In his words, caught between “homogenizing dynamics” and “exem-
plary logics,” the most vulnerable must compete for visibility (P. 231). Death
helps us see these groups and individuals by setting them in their local contexts
and showing us how they are impacted by green-state discourses and practices.
Wichtig, he shows us that they are not simply disempowered victims, Aber
agents and subjects of their own future. For those interested in environmental
justice, the task is to take this knowledge forward in theory and practice.
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