Carbon Offsetting Exposed as Con
A new report released today exposes carbon offsetting as ineffective
and damaging, and as a con which is failing to reduce, and in some cases
is even increasing, carbon emissions.
Meena Raman from Friends of the Earth Malaysia said:
“It is disgraceful that despite the urgency we are facing to tackle
climate change, rich industrialised countries are trying to buy their
way out of emission reductions through perilous offset schemes. Instead
of cheating and continually failing to address climate change, they
should live up their historical responsibilities and repay their climate
debt.”
Carbon offsetting further increases the 'climate debt' that
industrialised nations owe to developing countries, which have emitted
just a fraction of the carbon emissions responsible for global warming.
Rich, industrialised countries with around twenty percent of the world’s
population are responsible for around three quarters of historical
greenhouse gas emissions.
European and US administrations are actively promoting the increased use
of offsetting at the UN climate talks, including proposing a plan to
carbon offset by buying up forests – which will cause significant social
harm to the people that rely on forests and which is an ineffective tool
to stop deforestation. [3]
Friends of the Earth International is urging people to call for an end
to the carbon offsetting con and put pressure on world leaders for real
action. Individuals can sign up to a climate justice petition at www.demandclimatejustice.org
The green campaign group wants a commitment from rich countries
to cut their carbon emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020 – through
real change at home, not by buying offsets from abroad – and earmark new
money for developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate change
and grow their economies using clean technology.
Tom Picken of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
said:
“Western governments are cheating us all by plotting to expand carbon
offsetting at the UN climate talks – which means avoiding real action
through dodgy accounting instead of taking bold action to tackle the
climate crisis.
Carbon offsetting is simply delaying vital infrastructure change that is
needed, putting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people at risk
and is worsening inequality between rich and developing countries’
levels of emissions. “
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
IN BONN (GERMANY):
Meena Raman, Honorary Secretary of Friends of the Earth Malaysia:
+ 60 12 43 00 042 (Malaysian mobile number)
Tom Picken, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Tel: +44 7810 55 82 47 (UK mobile number)
Joseph Zacune, Friends of the Earth International Climate Coordinator,
Tel: +44 79 67 87 75 93 (UK mobile number)
Antje von Broock, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth Germany/BUND,
Tel. +49 173 6071601
IN LONDON (UK):
Henry Rummins, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
press office
+44 20 7566 1649 or +44- 7761 601 666
Notes to Editors:
1. The report was produced by Friends of the Earth England, Wales and
Northern Ireland. A full copy, as well as a summary of key facts from the report, is available at
2. ‘A Dangerous Distraction’ shows that offsetting is profoundly unjust,
fundamentally flawed, and cannot successfully be reformed because:
a. It pays for projects intended to reduce emissions in developing
countries while rich countries continue pumping out climate-changing
gases with impunity – when the science demands that carbon reductions
are made in both developed and developing countries;
b. Often the projects funded would have taken place anyway, so no
additional carbon is saved;
c. Many of the projects are fossil-fuel based projects which increase
emissions rather than reduce them;
d. Offsetting reduces pressure on rich countries to develop sustainable
technologies and provides an excuse for politicians to give the go-ahead
to carbon intensive projects such as airport runways and coal-fired
power stations;
e. Offsetting increases inequality in carbon consumption between rich
and poor countries.
3. Plans to reduce emissions from deforestation through proposals that
allow rich countries to buy chunks of forest whilst continuing to pump
out emissions, is simply an extension of carbon offsetting. 1.6 billion
people rely on forests, including 60 million indigenous people who are
entirely dependent upon forests for their livelihoods, food, medicines
and building materials.
Including forests in carbon markets is likely to trigger a land grab -
leaving these communities struggling to survive.
Furthermore, as the proposal defines plantations as forests, funding
under a UN scheme known as REDD could be used to replace forests with
large monoculture plantations. Plantations only store 20 per cent of the
carbon of intact forests, so this would reduce REDD’s impact on cutting
carbon emissions.
