Hi Chris, have you seen any evidence anywhere of carbon markets actually working? After so many years of massively subsidizing the heaviest polluters, there has been no progress whatsoever. Should the survival of the planet depend on the same speculative mechanisms that gave us the 2008 meltdown. Alternatives are either straightforward carbon taxation, or commons-based cap and dividend schemes. I guess the Mother Earth ‘concept’ works best for those who still feel a spiritual connection to nature, as the native peoples of Latin America still mostly do, but for us secularists, who understand our complex interdependency with the biological matrix, it is still an appropriate metaphor for the rights of nature.

Re carbon markets, I’d need to see more of the context of the quote. I don’t know anything (except possibly research subsidies) which holds more promise for tackling climate change. But he may be right in the sense that we don’t wasn’t the agreements framed by groups with their own financial profit as their key goal.