Contact: Heidi (Copenhagen): +45-2497-7908
The Story of Stuff Project and Climate Justice Now! – an international network of over 200 climate justice organizations and social movements – will host the European Premiere of The Story of Cap & Trade (www.storyofcapandtrade.org), a provocative 9-minute animated film on carbon trading, at 9:30pm on 8 December in the Red Room at the Klimaforum in Copenhagen. It will be followed by a panel discussion with experts on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, carbon offsetting and US climate legislation.
The “Story of Cap and Trade” has generated significant debate for challenging the orthodoxy of carbon trading as the primary solution to climate change; the film’s website has been viewed over 100,000 times since its December 1, 2009, launch in the United States.
“The Story of Cap & Trade helps simplify the mind-numbing details of the world’s primary response to climate change—carbon trading– and argues that it will only make matters worse,” said Oscar Reyes, with Carbon Trade Watch, a project of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. “We’re releasing the film now to ensure that people clearly understand that cap and trade is a dangerous distraction from the serious problem of climate change.”
The film introduces the people at the heart of cap and trade, including the energy traders from Enron, and Wall Street financiers like Goldman Sachs. Its animated characters walk viewers through both the theory of emissions trading and the practice, reminding viewers that when this $2-3 trillion carbon bubble bursts, it could take down everything.
“Current cap and trade proposals hand the future of our planet to the very people who created the problem in the first place,” said Janet Redman a policy analyst with the Institute for Policy Studies. “We need effective, just, and clean energy solutions now, not more loopholes and giveaways to polluters that will mean a delay in real climate action for decades.”
“The Story of Cap and Trade’s message is absolutely central to a strong agreement in Copenhagen: One that places a priority on what the climate science requires, not on what is easiest for big business,” said Ms. Payal Parekh, climate scientist, International Rivers
“We are fighting incinerator projects that strip hundreds of wastepickers of their livelihoods in the name of offsetting carbon emissions in rich countries,” said Poornima Chikarmane, a leader of the KKPKP wastepickers union in India. “These incinerators not only increase carbon emissions, they threaten the work of the poorest people who are implementing a real climate solution – recycling.”
Hosted by Annie Leonard, the creator of the viral video hit The Story of Stuff, (viewed worldwide over 8 million times), the Story of Cap & Trade points to more effective ways to tackle the climate crisis. The film’s website is serving as an interactive launch pad for information with actions people can take to address the climate change crisis. The site features dozens of organizations working toward real climate solutions, offers viewers a series of ways to get involved and includes downloadable resources and information, including a footnoted script.