The Clean Development Mechanism and carbon enclosures

Abstract

This thesis examines the role the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an offsetting mechanism introduced by the Kyoto Protocol, played in facilitating carbon enclosure in the global South. The research focuses on the CDM as a case study, which connects a range of actors and disciplines in the service of decarbonization. The research in this thesis is both descriptive and explicative, comparing dominant assumptions about market environmentalism and critical political economy perspectives. The research, and this thesis, shows that the CDM's characteristics as a tool for capital accumulation resulted in uneven distribution of projects and green enclosure.