PODCAST:Behind the Money
TITLE:Could COP28 catapult the carbon credit market?
DATE:2023-12-06 00:00:00
URL:
MODEL:text-davinci-002-render-sha
Summary of "BEHIND THE MONEY" Podcast - "Could COP28 catapult the carbon credit market"
Blue Carbon is a relatively new company based in Dubai that has been making significant deals with African countries, acquiring rights to manage large tracts of forest land.
Carbon credits represent permission to release greenhouse gases, with each credit equivalent to one ton of carbon removed from the atmosphere.
The carbon credit market has traditionally been limited to private buyers like companies and individuals, but COP 28 is discussing the possibility of countries participating in the market.
The carbon credit market could become a funnel for wealthier countries to provide financial support to developing nations in exchange for preserving forests, helping both climate goals and local economies.
However, the carbon credit market is relatively unregulated, raising concerns about accountability and potential human rights issues, particularly regarding land rights for local communities.
Blue Carbon, specifically, has acquired the rights to sell carbon credits using African forest land for the next three decades, raising questions about who benefits from these deals.
Some countries like Switzerland and Singapore have been active in carbon credit deals, but Blue Carbon's approach involves acquiring rights to vast land areas, potentially impacting local communities' land use.
Local communities in affected areas may lack understanding about carbon credits and how they work, and their consent has not yet been sought for many of these deals.
Some countries are taking steps to regulate carbon credits to ensure they benefit local communities and governments more than potential foreign buyers.
There are concerns that expanding the carbon credit market without proper regulation could lead to the misuse of credits to justify ongoing emissions.
In the future, the podcast will monitor the efforts of countries like Zimbabwe and Kenya to strengthen their regulatory systems for carbon credits and how COP 28 negotiates the details of the carbon credit marketplace.
The goal is to find a way to transfer funds from wealthier to poorer countries while incentivizing nature conservation effectively.
