Are Carbon Market Instruments Created by Neoliberalism Policies a Solution for Reducing Carbon Emissions?.

IV. International Architectural Sciences and Applications Symposium, Girne, Kıbrıs (Kktc), 30 - 31 Mayıs 2024, ss.358-374, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

It is accepted that the main reason for climate change and its negative consequences as a result of the increase in

carbon emissions in the world we live in is the multifaceted production-consumption activities of human beings that

are not compatible with nature, today's economy (profit) oriented investment policies, destruction of natural resources

and ecosystems, excessive consumption of fossil resources, improper and misuse of land, increasing construction and

urbanization, lack of responsibility and ethical approaches, etc. In this context, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG)

emissions, especially carbon emissions, and increasing carbon sink areas are accepted as the most critical strategic

discourse and actions in solving the global climate change crisis. However, the emergence and solution of this

problem stems from today's current economic and political understanding and neoliberalism policies that affect every

aspect of our lives. While the global powers that cause the increase in greenhouse gases want developing or

underdeveloped countries to pay the bill for the climate change problem, neoliberal policies, and approaches, which

plan to profit from this crisis at the same time, claim that they contribute to the fight against climate change with

carbon markets created by using commodification, commercialization, and deregulation tools. As a result,

neoliberals, who exploit nature as the source of human life, with their greed for profit, shape the studies and

agreements carried out in the international arena to form and solve the climate change problem in line with their

interests. In this context, the carbon markets included in the Kyoto Protocol, which are based on the commodification

of nature and presented as a solution, are an indicator of this approach. The fact that carbon markets are highly

vulnerable to capture by influential global market actors, oversimplifying the complexity of climate change, promoting

private gains at the expense of public welfare, commodifying carbon, excessively increasing the cost of production,

and passing it on to consumers, inadequate supervision and control mechanisms, unequal and unbalanced sharing,

ethical dimension, etc. are considered as severe arguments for this purpose. As a result, combating climate change

requires a direct struggle against capitalism and neoliberal ideology, especially the transformation of solutions

compatible with nature into action.