Global Networks 15, supplemental issue (2015) S87–S107. © 2015 The Author(s) Global Networks © 2015 Global Networks Partnership & John Wiley & Sons Ltd S87 EDF Energy’s green CSR claims examined: the follies of global carbon commodity chains STEFFEN BÖHM, * VINICIUS BREI † AND SIDDHARTHA DABHI ‡ * (corresponding author) Steffen Böhm, University of Essex, Colchester, UK steffen@essex.ac.uk † Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil ‡ independent researcher, Gujarat, India Abstract In this article, we analyse the dynamic connections constituted by the global commodity chains of carbon markets, which offer profit, marketing and legitimacy- providing opportunities for both Northern and Southern corporations. Specifically, we contrast EDF Energy’s green CSR and marketing discourse with the social, economic and environmental realities on the ground near the factory of Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited (GFL), which operates one of the biggest clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in India. Based on historical documents, secondary datasets, compan- ies’ websites and their financial information, primary ethnographic and interview data, our analysis makes a direct link – enabled by global carbon markets – between the green claims made by EDF Energy, one of the biggest energy companies in the UK, and the dirty reality of GFL’s operations in India. In this historical case, we put into doubt the green CSR claims made by EDF Energy, questioning the discourse of sustainable development and improvement in people’s lives that surround global carbon markets and specifically the CDM. Keywords CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, CARBON MARKETS, COMMODITY CHAINS, CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM, MARKETING, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT After the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 large corporations started to embrace the discourse of ‘sustainable development’ and, today, most major companies publish a sustainability and/or corporate social responsibility (CSR) report showing how they reduce their environmental impact and contribute to wider ‘sustainable development’ goals. While many of these sustainability and CSR initiatives might be well intentioned, there have been many critics who expose companies’ sustainability/CSR activities as ‘manage- ment fashion’ (Zorn and Collins 2007) or ‘greenwash’ (Fleming and Jones 2012; Peattie and Crane 2005).