EU may allow carbon credits from developing countries to count towards climate goals | Green groups furious at plans to let member states buy controversial carbon offsets from abroad
EU may allow carbon credits from developing countries to count towards climate goals | Green groups furious at plans to let member states buy controversial carbon offsets from abroad
Exclusive: Green groups furious at plans to let member states buy controversial carbon offsets from overseas
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24142922
archived (Wayback Machine)
Carbon credits have often been based on non-existent contracts with local people, or used for land-grabbing, or reforestation projects in which trees were not maintained and were soon cut down or eaten by cows, or otherwise fraudulent. In any case, letting humans take credit for photosynthesis is flawed emissions accounting, and the price of each credit is much lower than the social and environmental cost of the emissions that it offsets.
Allowing corporations to greenwash themselves is already too much. Let's not allow countries to do it.
And as usual -because it's all about diversion anyway- we are talking about the wrong topic.
Carbon credits aren't the problem. Making cheaper and climate-damaging production more expensive artificially so climate-friendly alternatives make sense economically is the whole point.
The problem (the actual one they don't want to publically talk about) is that those credits are far too cheap at best, just a total scam at worst. And that's intentional... thus the constant diversion by discussion much less important details.
I'd say these issues are fundamental with "carbon credits" unless there is a reliable global authority that can ensure these credits to actually reflect the emissions of a country vs. the permissible emissions under the 1.5°C goal.
We need to establish such an authority before we start dealing in "carbon credits" globally. Until then they can only be dealt in locally, assuming that locally the values are actually realistic.
Yeah, there is no point in making regulations and give max values if anyone can buy themself free...