Human Rights and the Commodification of Pollution – A Genealogical Study of the Carbon Market with an Intergenerational Justice Perspective

Abstract: The carbon market promises cost-effective climate change mitigation and economic growth. However, it has been criticised as greenwashing and delaying necessary decarbonisation. This thesis examines the genealogy of the carbon market to address the human rights consequences for future generations. Approaching the issue from a theoretical framework of intergenerational justice enables an understanding of the protection and fulfilment of future human rights concerning environmental protection. The thesis asks: How did the carbon market become dominant as a mitigation technique, and what are the human rights consequences of relying on the carbon market to mitigate climate change? Using the genealogical approach by Michel Foucault and intergenerational justice theory allows an analysis of not only the genealogy of the carbon market but also how it is perceived today and how we have made assumptions based on what we hope it provides – even if the market itself is incapable of delivering on these promises. A multidimensional perspective is brought forth by examining the values and ideas that followed the market’s creation, trusting capitalist market forces to regulate our production and subsequent pollution. The study reveals the carbon market as the latest attempt to liberalise and privatise the last global commons, the atmosphere, while framing this as a “cost-effective” solution to climate change. The thesis finds that the carbon market is a social construct created to protect economic growth and concludes this will jeopardise future generations' lives and human rights if this is not acknowledged and challenged.