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The paper presents two interrelated sections. In the first, global carbon markets are historically contextualized, analytically described and politically articulated against the background of a twofold hypothesis: a) the process of progressive marketization of climate change occurs in connection with the emergence of a new modality of value production (which can be generically defined as “cognitive capitalism”); b) the governance of contemporary circuits of valorization tends to be located within the financial sphere and poses a constitutive and ongoing uncertainty/instability as a necessary condition for their reproduction. Such a twofold hypothesis is tested in the second part of the paper, with specific reference to the Clean Development Mechanism – as established by the Kyoto Protocol. In particular, the analysis will focus on the carbon commodities enacted by the Protocol, which is to say the Certified Emission Reductions. The argument advanced by the paper is twofold: a) such commodities depend on an instrumental use of theoretical innovation ceaselessly produced by climate science; b) the wealth creation activated by these commodities almost entirely occurs within the space defined by financial markets. Overall, the paper aims at demonstrating how the value produced in global carbon markets exclusively rests on the social actors' arbitrary acceptance of the carbon trading dogma, namely the assertion – empirically inconsistent as much as impossible to be accounted for – that only market agents can efficiently tackle the critical issues raised by global warming.
