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Dear readers,
Welcome to the Climate Weekly newsletter by the Centre for Science and Environment’s Climate Change programme and Down to Earth.
While the world awaits the issue of regulating the global carbon market at COP 28 in Dubai this year, our new report by CSE-DTE has blown the lid off the extremely secretive world of the voluntary carbon market (VCM). You could take a flight that is “carbon neutral” or buy a luxury bag, where the emissions to manufacture it have been supposedly “offset” - or an oil company can keep producing oil but show that it has been offset - through the purchase of carbon credits.
Releasing the CSE investigative report at a webinar, CSE Director-General Sunita Narain said: “Carbon markets have the potential to unlock billions of dollars for countries in the Global South that need money to move to a low-carbon energy system and to ensure socio-economic development of their communities. But is today’s voluntary carbon market working for people and the planet? Our investigation shows that it is not.” In fact, it serves the interest of the retinue of project developers, verifiers and other intermediaries who make a profit out of the lucrative carbon "business".
India is the world’s second largest supplier of carbon offsets and India’s VCM is worth over US $1.2 billion. My colleague Rohini Krishnamurthy and I travelled to 40 project locations across India to understand how the market works. At every location, we found that communities, their lands and their labour were central to the business – but community members were almost never aware that they were working to generate carbon credits and had no rights of their own over those credits. The projects also raised fundamental concerns about the accounting practices of these transactions and the companies behind them.
Elsewhere, you can read about some of the recent disagreements on the issue of funds for loss and damage. You can learn about the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood in Sikkim which damaged dams and major infrastructure. Follow this series of reporting on the impact of climate change on India’s forests. And watch the release of CSE’s State of Africa's Environment Report 2023 in Nairobi next week.
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By - Trishant Dev
Climate Change, CSE
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| EXTREME WEATHER TRACKER |
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2023 on its way to being warmest year on record; 2024 may surpass it: Report, 06 October 2023
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New York grapples with climate-driven deluge: Historic rainfall and flash floods are the new normal, 06 October 2023
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COMMENTARIES |
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Men in black, 05 October 2023
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Carbon market has the potential to unlock billions of dollars for countries in the Global South. But is this voluntary carbon market working for people and the planet?
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CLIMATE NEWS | SCIENCE| IMPACTS| POLITICS |
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| Book Release and Media Briefing |
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Factsheet |
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