A loss of confidence in the market is undermining the economic viability of many carbon offset projects in Africa.
Recent months have seen a flurry of interest in Africa’s potential role in the voluntary carbon market, accompanied by a series of major announcements about land deals for carbon removals projects. Yet this activity makes it easy to overlook a major reality – that the voluntary carbon market is in deep trouble.
The basic concept behind carbon markets – that organisations that cause carbon emissions should fund projects that “offset” this harm by removing carbon from the atmosphere – has never been universally popular. Critics believe that allowing polluters to purchase so-called carbon credits serves as a get-out-of-jail-free card that enables them to avoid cutting their emissions.
Criticism of the carbon market has intensified this year, amid a series of high-profile media reports exposing carbon offset projects that appear to have glaring flaws in their design and methodology.
Exposés in The Guardian and other international media have drawn attention to REDD+ projects – a type of scheme in which the proceeds of carbon credits can be used to protect existing forests. Investigations have suggested that many of these schemes exaggerate their impact – in some cases, credits have allegedly been sold to “protect” forests that are not actually in immediate danger. Such schemes are said to be “worthless”, in that the purchase of carbon credits makes no difference to the amount of carbon being removed from the atmosphere.
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