Planting Trees to Mitigate Climate Change: Contested Discourses of Ecological Modernization, Green Governmentality and Civic Environmentalism

Abstract

Forest plantations or so-called carbon sinks have played a critical role in the climate change negotiations and constitute a central element in the scheme to limit atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations set out by the Kyoto Protocol. This paper examines dominant discursive framings of forest plantation projects in the climate regime. A central proposition is that these projects represent a microcosm of competing and overlapping discourses that are mirrored in debates of global environmental governance. While the win-win discourse of ecological modernization has legitimized the inclusion of sink projects in the Kyoto Protocol, a green governmentality discourse has provided the scientific rationale necessary to turn tropical tree-plantation projects operational on the emerging carbon market. A critical civic environmentalism discourse has contested forest sink projects depicting them as unjust and environmentally unsound strategies to mitigate climate change. The article examines the articulation and institutionalization of these discourses in the climate negotiation process as well as the wider implications for environmental governance. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Earth system governance: a research framework

“…This may push science and scientific results in specific directions and marginalize other scientific research questions and methodologies, often affecting especially developing country concerns and interests. One can capture this in notions of the politics of science (Annan 2003;Gupta 1997;Gupta and van der Zaag 2009) or of governmentality, as science is used to discipline both humans and environments (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand 2006).…”

The Brazilian position on forests and climate change from 1997 to 2012: from veto to proposition

“…The answer to this question remains unknown and unlikely in the near future, as even the commitments of domestic emission reductions which form the core of the climate change regime have not yet been renewed. Bäckstrand and Lövbrand (2006) identify three global environmental governance discourses on the sinks discussion in the UNFCCC: ecological modernization, green governance, and civic environmentalism. Ecological modernization focuses on the compatibility between economic growth and environmental protection, liberal market capitalism and sustainable development.…”

“…Therefore, it makes sense to take into account both sources and sinks in a mitigation system. Another piece of this discourse is the narrative of "maximizing synergies," which suggests that projects involving tropical forests combine lowcost mitigation with sustainable forest management, poverty reduction, local development, and biodiversity protection (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand 2006). Green governability can be perceived in the argument that technical and scientific constraints that were present in 1997 have been solved.…”

Planting Trees for Publicity—How Much Are They Worth?

“…As a result, at least in developed countries, the general public increasingly associates trees and forests with benefits and the aim to save trees, care for trees and plant trees is widely supported [8][9][10]. Many companies have identified a new opportunity to improve and green their image by getting involved in tree/forest planting and thus "preventing climate change" [11][12][13]. Voluntary carbon offsets and tree-planting social events for employees and other stakeholders provide the most common examples of how companies use this new opportunity [14].…”