Experts dismiss carbon markets initiative
Delegates follow proceedings on the final day of the Africa Climate Summit held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on September 6, 2023.
A new report released on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit has poured cold water on the carbon markets craze, calling it “a wolf in a sheep’s clothing”.
Carbon markets is a term used by climate experts to refer to the buying and selling of carbon credits, with polluters compensating for their pollution through the credits. The newly passed Climate Change Act 2023 provides for carbon markets. Already, communities in Kenya, through external partners are reaping from the markets.
In the new report, however, eight civil societies say that the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) is a dangerous distraction.
“The hype around carbon markets in Africa is creating a Wild West for a new type of entrepreneur whose sole purpose is to manufacture carbon credits,” states the report.
The report argues that while Africa is cash-strapped and needs funding for the climate crisis, it should not get that money by allowing polluters to continue polluting.
“Climate science is clear there is no time for pretending there is an offsetting alternative if we are to keep within the 1.5 degrees Celsius target or even below the unimaginable disaster of 2 degrees Celsius of warming,” states the report.
“The carbon credit producing projects ... do not nullify the emissions of the polluting companies that buy them. In practice, the net impact is to increase the climate crisis, devastating African nations,” it explains.
The report also states that the accounting of carbon offsetting is “a kind of accounting fraud that would be illegal elsewhere” and may not help much with the climate crisis.
Further, the report shows that carbon markets do not drive development for the African continent, neither do they have provision for sustainable jobs.
“The ACMI uses a simplistic multiplier to calculate the projected number of jobs assumed to be created, based on both assumptions of high carbon credit costs and seemingly inflated relations between number of jobs and the volumes of carbon credits generated,” says the report.
In a country like Kenya where land rights, especially for women, are still an issue, the report says carbon markets may undermines any progress made on this front. It says some local communities may be afflicted by people who come with carbon market projects and leave out the rights of peoples.
“The Kenyan government forcibly evicted the Sengwer from Embobut Forest under the guise of a carbon offset project, violating their rights,” cites the report.
