We are always optimstic, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that much positive stuff will emerge from the Copenhagen talkfest on climate change.
The decision this week by a United Nations board to allow soya, palm oil and other agrofuel plantations to receive carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an environmental disaster. The agrofuel industry, already boosted by EU and US targets, incentives and subsidies, can now pocket hundreds of millions of dollars in extra subsidies. Vast carbon dioxide emissions from coal power stations in Europe can now be officially ‘offset’ by companies paying for soya plantations in Brazil or palm oil plantations in Indonesia or Thailand, which in turn will cause more deforestation and other ecosystem destruction – and more climate change.
The CDM was set up under the Kyoto Protocol and allows Northern hemisphere countries to ‘offset’ greenhouse gas emissions by paying for projects in the South, instead of cutting their own emissions. There is clear evidence that most of the CDM carbon credits go towards polluting industries in the Southern hemisphere, and in future, more carbon credits will go towards monoculture plantations in the South – now including soya, palm oil and jatropha plantations for agrofuels. The new CDM...
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carbon emissions offsets, clean development mechanism
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