“The dark side of the market is a realm of manipulation, of industries that work tirelessly and unscrupulously to generate and even invent their own demand, and of accounting that allows the “externalization” of real costs, including lives. […] Our desire for life itself, for a habitable planet, is being hijacked, manipulated, and commodified for profit and paid for in blood.”
The unsafe Safeguard Mechanism: how carbon credits could blow up Australia’s main climate policy
"The reputation of offsets or these projects do serious damage to Australia’s emissions reduction efforts."
"Our research shows that most of these projects have low integrity. People are getting carbon credits for not clearing forests that were never going to be cleared anyway, for growing trees that already exist, for growing forests in places that will never sustain them, and for operating electricity generators at landfills that would have operated anyway."
"Fixing these flaws is challenging. But by refusing to face the problems head-on, the government has sabotaged its own climate policy. Its failure could also permanently stain the reputation of offsets."
“Everywhere we looked, we found the GISERA report had significantly underestimated #emissions factors – from the emissions intensity of fracked gas, to #methane loss and leakage, #LNG production, the availability of #offsets and the capture rate for carbon capture,” said Climate Analytics analyst and report author Thomas Houlie.
The Beetaloo gas field is a climate bomb
How did CSIRO modelling make it look otherwise?
"If it is allowed to proceed, this single project could undo all of our efforts to cut emissions. Beetaloo and Middle Arm are a climate bomb. They will produce vast volumes of emissions which cannot be offset. The atmosphere doesn’t respond to clever accounting, overly optimistic projections and reliance on offsets – only on how many tonnes of emissions end up there."
"The International Energy Agency has shown we have to slash demand for fossil fuels 25% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 to keep heating under 1.5°C and limit the worst effects of climate change." >
'Serious concerns' over Australia's soil carbon scheme
"The group, from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and several Australian universities, concluded changing practices can bring benefits but more science is needed to prove carbon capture.
"There is a lack of evidence in Australia that grazing management directly increases soil carbon," they found."
Polly Hemming
Australia’s compromised climate negotiators
""When I raised this with a former UN negotiator, generally full of praise for Australians, they laughed uncomfortably and admitted that often, when dealing with the Australian government, “it’s not until it’s too late that you realise they’ve totally fucked you over”." https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2023/10/07/australias-compromised-climate-negotiators#mtr
If this isn't a perfect example modern #colonialism, I don't know what is. A company headed by a Saudi prince grabbing 20% of Zimbabwe and 10% of Liberia in order to sell carbon offsets that'll no doubt be used by firms to continue burning fossil fuels.
This isn't helping fight #climateChange, it's doing exactly the opposite.
We cannot use offsets to excuse further fossil fuel burning. The aim has to be zero carbon emissions. Even if we try hard, we'll miss by a bit, and by then there might be techniques to take in carbon to reach net zero. But decarbonisation must be as complete as possible
Climate change is an immediate threat to the majority of the world's population.
We need a local, regional, state, national, and international "moon shot" type of concentration of effort using available resources while developing and advancing new science and technologies to counteract the damage humans have caused.
Without this type of all-out, universal cooperation, human civilization, and perhaps humanity itself, are in imminent danger of extinction.
An #offset program — backed by the World Bank — that is meant to promote #conservation is actually devastating communities and the ecosystem in #Guinea, where villages have been torn apart and residents and endangered #chimps fight for the same #resources.