Here in New York, climate justice advocates rallied on Tuesday outside a business summit on carbon trading. Participants at the annual Carbon Trading Summit include top executives from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Duke Energy and other firms. NASA climatologist James Hansen called market-based carbon trading a boon for corporations.

James Hansen: “If you look at the bills in Congress, they’re giving the money back to the polluters. And the carbon trading scheme will make billions for the banks. They’re not needed. It’s a very simple problem. You need a simple, honest solution, in which you put a price on carbon, collect the money from the fossil fuel companies, distribute it to the public, so that they can have the money to stimulate the economy and to make the investments, changes in their lifestyles: more efficient vehicles, insulate their homes, etc. So that’s what we need.”