Seite - (000239) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

In addition, value chain analysis disintegrates commodity production into dis- crete stages– fromproductdesign to rawmaterial acquisition to retail – to identify wherehighvalueactivitiesare locatedandhowtheycangovern theactivities in the lower-value regions (Gereffi et al. 2005). In practical terms, this means interviewing every type ofworker involved in the project to determine how they benefited fromproject participation; their salary andmethod of compensation and their complaints or sources of joy andpride in theirwork. The organizing idea for value chain scholars is that “disintegrated production” can explain the unintended phenomena of immiserizing growth, i.e. economic growth accompanied by increased inequality (Bhagwati 1968). Importantly, high value activities are characterized as having high entry barriers – in the case of the carbonmarket the largest barrier to entry is technical understanding of an opaque and highly complex commodification process (Bair andGereffi 2001). Lowvalue activities have low-entry barriers. Consequentially, the lower rungs are subject to excess labor supply resulting in competitive pressure on wages and output. It follows that increased productivity and employment can result in diminishing economic returns for low-value activities in the chain. Given that the carbonmarketwas created under theKyotoProtocol to simulta- neously reduce global greenhouse gas emissions at their point of least cost while also stimulating technology transfer and development revenue by integrating developing countries into the global marketplace for green technologies, value chain analysis is a well-tailored tool to assess how geographical position and assetaccumulationrelatewithinthecarbonoffsetcontext.Bymappingthedifferent pathwaysforeconomicaccumulationforapatronageandapartnershipstylecarbon project, value chain analysis can showhowandhowmuch the distribution system actuallymatters. 12.4 CaseStudyAttributes Cambodia is a newly graduated lower-income developing country in Southeast Asia,whichwasaLeastDevelopingCountryprior to2016whenthefieldworkwas conducted. Ithasapopulationof14,864,646andanaverage incomeof$2.59USD per day.Eightypercent of the population lives in rural conditions, and75%of all households lack access to grid-powered electricity (GACC2015). Cambodia suf- fersfromoneof thehighestratesofdeforestationintheworld, inpartduetothefact that over 80%ofCambodians rely onwood and charcoal for their daily cooking andwater boiling needs.While charcoal is officially banned fromuse, it is the de facto fuel source of choice, and its consumption alongsidewoodfuel accounts for more than 4.7million tonnes of forestmass consumed annually just for domestic cooking (Nexus 2015). The economic conditions and the degree of environmental degradation within Cambodia have made it an attractive host for carbonmarket investments, and as such three national programs to distribute water filters, 12 Unpacking theBlackBoxofTechnologyDistribution,Development Potential. . . 223