The burning of #wood in power and heat stations, and the industrial use of #charcoal, are expanding rapidly worldwide, at the expense of forests (and therefore our future).
This is driven by a combination of renewable energy targets and subsidies, #coal phaseout policies that support wood #biomass as an alternative, the exemption of biomass from carbon taxes and pricing and, in parts of the global South, carbon-#offsetting schemes.
German environment minister promises better fraud prevention in wake of fake climate projects in China
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/german-environment-minister-promises-better-fraud-prevention-wake-fake-climate-projects-china #CO2 #carbondioxide #offsetting
Ryanair, Delta, Lufthansa, Easyjet among 71 airlines warned over potential greenwashing
Environmental groups have warned 71 #airlines operating out of Schiphol airport that they must respect the #greenwashing limits clarified by the legal precedent-setting Dutch Court ruling against KLM in March this year.
ClientEarth, Fossielvrij and Reclame Fossielvrij have sent a legal letter warning that airlines should not promote common industry claims about ‘sustainable aviation fuels’, #offsetting and #NetZero by 2050 as they are likely to be unlawful.
Interesting new foresight report by UNEP. Among many other issues it highlights misinformation, surging #fossil fuel subsidies, and corruption in carbon #offsetting https://www.unep.org/resources/global-foresight-report
While there are well-intentioned people trying to make #offsetting work, the whole idea is very exposed to fraud (at worst) and failure. My advice? 1. Focus on reducing emissions in the first place (politically / professionally / personally). 2. If you want to donate to make the world greener, for whatever reason, send your money to further green politics, green campaigns or green charities.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/15/money-carbon-credits-zimbabwe-conservation-aoe
“Swift could plant trees in a creative way. Suppose Swift created an Eras forest in every city she visits and located them in the poorest neighborhoods…urban forests create additional benefits, such as improving air quality and reducing heat-island effect. These benefits are especially important in low-income communities with lower canopy cover” #Offsetting #Climate https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2024/02/25/eras-forests-could-offset-taylor-swifts-carbon-footprint/amp/
"How meat and milk companies are racing to ease your climate guilt."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/22/meat-climate-impact-tyson-hopdoddys/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA1ODk5NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA3MjgxOTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDU4OTk2MDAsImp0aSI6ImRlNGNjNjNlLTJjOWYtNDg0OC04OWEzLTFkYzM0MGM1NDE0MSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9jbGltYXRlLWVudmlyb25tZW50LzIwMjQvMDEvMjIvbWVhdC1jbGltYXRlLWltcGFjdC10eXNvbi1ob3Bkb2RkeXMvIn0.wFGmMWYI80_RG13Ir1UzTK7fsNIpm7kbSwtUvtFqBKs
WaPo finally posted a modest critique of meat industry greenwashing.
<💬>
Under another new California law, companies also must disclose the emissions created throughout their supply chains, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a similar requirement.
It all has big food companies rushing to show progress in cutting emissions, particularly after so many of them promised to zero out their net release of greenhouse gases — known as going “carbon neutral” — by 2050 or earlier, in alignment with the Paris agreement on global warming. In the backdrop is a contentious debate over how those companies should calculate their carbon footprints.
The fight has shifted to an obscure independent organization called the GHG Protocol, a group made up of corporations, scientists and environmental groups that writes accounting rules for greenhouse gas emissions that will guide what climate claims companies can make under new state laws.
Among the companies involved in determining when and how farming and harvesting methods can be used to erase the emissions impact of products like hamburgers and dairy are McDonald’s, Nestlé and the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, to which meat giants Tyson Foods and Cargill belong.
The deliberations of the GHG Protocol, which is managed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, are kept confidential. But discord spilled into public in the fall, following its publication of draft guidelines for farm and forestry emissions. Dozens of environmental groups and academics say the rules as proposed would allow companies to declare climate-unfriendly products such as lumber, paper, beef and milk carbon neutral — or even carbon negative — by making modest land use adjustments that don’t truly mitigate the emissions of those products.
</💬>
There's certainly going to be more and more tension due to these corporations trying to find better greenwashing, better methods of faking data, more sophisticated bullshit.
It's going to get a lot worse before they lose.
#climate #carbon #carbonNeutral #netZero #meat #dairy #meatIndustry #GHG #greenwashing #regenerative #grazing #regenerativeGrazing #astroPasturing #offset #offsetting #PR #carbonNegative
European parliament MEPs have voted to outlaw use of terms such as “environmentally friendly”, “natural”, “biodegradable”, “climate neutral” or “eco” without evidence, while introducing a total ban on using carbon #offsetting schemes to substantiate claims https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/17/eu-bans-misleading-environmental-claims-that-rely-on-offsetting
World can't rely on tree planting to limit climate change, says report
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-world-tree-limit-climate.html #Tree #Planting #ClimateChange #IPCC #Reforestation #offsetting #feasibility #LandUse
The NSW biodiversity credits market
"NSW pricing watchdog recommends overhaul of biodiversity offsets scheme. Tribunal found developers were paying into fund five times faster than the Biodiversity Conservation Trust was able to find required offsets."
"The report said a submission the tribunal received from the Independent Commission Against Corruption noted “inadequate governance arrangements undermine confidence and introduce the risk of corruption”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/19/nsw-pricing-watchdog-recommends-overhaul-of-biodiversity-offsets-scheme
#NSW #transparency #PublicInformation #Offsetting #offsets #governance #biodiversity
Stellar #journalism from #C4News on phantom #carboncredits in the #cookstoves #carbonoffset market. It complements nicely the #JohnOliver skit on why #offsetting is a con. Jamal Osman always gets the facts on the ground wherever that may be & I love Ciaran Jenkins's interview style more each day: calm, non-confrontational, surgical & supremely effective, Made that CEO sweat alright 😅! #climateemergency https://www.channel4.com/news/cookstoves-is-the-multibillion-dollar-carbon-offset-market-flawed
Nature Market
"Many experts have been highly sceptical of using market forces to reverse the damage we’ve done to nature."
"Australians woke up this morning to discover they had a nature repair market, after the legislation passed late last night. Except it won’t be called a market, after amendments by the Greens, and it won’t include biodiversity offsets."
"Australia needs to act and act quickly to protect and restore nature where further degradation would be difficult or impossible to reverse....This could take a couple of years..."
>>
https://theconversation.com/can-the-governments-new-market-mechanism-help-save-nature-yes-if-we-get-the-devil-out-of-the-detail-218713
#BiodiversityMarket #biodiversity #NaturePositive #EPBCAct #market #extinction #Offsetting #nature #repair #language
Native forest logging ban in Tasmania could save state $72m, pro-market thinktank says
"Analysis recommends the government stop subsidising its forestry arm and generate carbon credits, a move likely to be opposed by industry and conservationists. The taxpayer should not be subsidising environmental degradation to indulge the anti-competitive, protectionist fantasies of a small number of individuals with outdated and romanticised views of an industry."
"Tasmanian environment organisations say the state should follow Victoria and Western Australia in phasing out native logging next year without allowing forests to be used to offset ongoing pollution. The Australia Institute has launched a campaign arguing “turning Australia’s forests into carbon offsets for the fossil fuel industry will only mean more pollution and more climate change”.
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/29/native-forest-logging-ban-tasmania-report-carbon-credits
#FossilFuels #LoggingIndustry #Offsetting #NativeForests #ClimateEmergency #biodiversityCrisis #conservation
"#Offsetting has been hailed as a fix for runaway emissions and #climate change—but the market’s largest firm sold millions of credits for carbon reductions that weren’t real."
Yet another remarkable investigation on the carbon offsetting scam.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/the-great-cash-for-carbon-hustle
#Kolumbien: Greenwashingvorwurf gegen Nestlés Kaffeefinca-Aufforstungsprogramm - Skepsis gegenüber Baumpflanzungen: „Wir bräuchten drei Erden, wenn jedes Unternehmen auf der Welt versuchen würde, seine Emis… https://www.npla.de/thema/umwelt-wirtschaft/greenwashingvorwurf-gegen-nestles-kaffeefinca-aufforstungsprogramm/ #Emissionshandel #greenwashing #Kaffee #Nestlé #Offsetting
#Kolumbien: Mehr als Greenwashing? – Nestlé lässt auf Kaffeefincas Bäume pflanzen Der weltweite Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen ist nach wie vor viel zu hoch, um das 1,5 Grad Ziel des Pariser Klimaabkommens… https://www.npla.de/thema/allgemein/mehr-als-greenwashing-nestle-laesst-auf-kaffeefincas-baeume-pflanzen/ #Emissionshandel #greenwashing #Kaffee #Nestlé #Offsetting
#maladaptations: Misleading #offsets carry negative #consequences for the #climate because they are not #offsetting the #emissions released… not reducing deforestation as much as claimed, and for the future finance of #forestconservation because the reputational risks of being tainted by accusations of #greenwash may deter future #investments- Julia P. G. Jones
#deforestation
https://www.salon.com/2023/08/24/why-planting-trees-to-offset-carbon-emissions-doesnt-really-work-according-to-experts/
Australia is at a turning point
250 years of extinctions and degradation is enough.
Every indicator on the environment is going in the wrong direction.
The environment must be given legal priority over land-clearing and logging to survive.
"The Henry review is the latest in a number reports that have found Australia’s natural environment is in peril. The five-yearly state of the environment released last year found it was in poor and deteriorating health due to pressure from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining."
"Dr Ken Henry (Chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation) says NSW’s biodiversity laws are failing and must be overhauled to give nature protection primacy over l o g g i n g , mining and urban expansion...Australia’s environment must be given legal priority over land-clearing and logging to survive."
"He made the comments after leading a scathing review of the New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Act, which said the laws were failing and were likely to never succeed unless they were overhauled to give n a t u r e p r o t e c t i o n primacy over development, logging, mining and urban expansion."
“Legislation that deals with rural lands and rural land-clearing, in particular, [but also] legislation that deals with planning, with f o r e s t r y , with mining – you name it, all of those other acts have p r i m a c y over the biodiversity and conservation act, and they are undermining its effectiveness..That’s the biggest problem."
"On nature, Henry’s recommendations included the creation of “no-go” zones in which land-clearing would be banned and major changes to the state’s biodiversity offset scheme, which was found to be “compromised”."
“Fix the biodiversity offset scheme, strengthen environmental protections and stop runaway land-clearing"
#IntergenerationalTragedy #Offsetting #climate #Logging #StopLogging #NativeForest #Australia #policy #environment #law #biodiversity #extinction
