Post by bonnasuttadhar225588 on Feb 15, 2024 5:24:31 GMT
Simply put, a carbon credit is a tradable certificate that represents one ton of carbon dioxide (tCO2). This amount is the carbon that has been avoided, reduced or sequestered through a project and can be purchased as a means to offset emissions elsewhere. From the perspective of global efforts to keep the increase in the planet's temperature below 1.5 °C, carbon credits emerged with the aim of making a simple and profitable transition for polluting industries. However, if done wrong, they could be undermining climate action. So what is the credibility of carbon credits? We tell you! Offsetting or not offsetting carbon Carbon credits are a form of carbon offset that polluting companies can purchase. The money must be used to finance actions somewhere in the world that remove the same amount of carbon from the air or to prevent carbon emissions, such as reforestation. Here there are two positions that have been maintained since the issuance of carbon credits.
On the one hand, there are those who point out that this type of compensation allows companies to avoid or actually reduce their emissions until they are almost completely zero, and encourages them to purchase this type of compensation. On the other hand are those who believe that carbon credits are better than doing nothing. And they point out that, if offset is done correctly, it can bring broad benefits to the planet, particularly in funding forest protection. Additionally, it gives companies time to work on their efforts toward zero emissions. Offsetting carbon means increasing storage capacity Western Sahara Email List In this ambivalence, according to David Humphreys, emeritus professor of environmental policy at the Open University, it is true that there are some inherent flaws in offset projects through carbon credits. For example, in the avoided deforestation system—a possible way to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation—as a basis for creating carbon credits, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitters are allowed to claim that are contributing to net zero emissions. But in reality these projects only maintain the existing storage capacity in forests, they do not add to it, so they cannot compensate for additional emissions. In this context, carbon offset projects only make sense when net forest cover increases.
Until that happens, the carbon offset market is not a case of net zero emissions, but rather zero credibility of carbon credits. carbon credits Promote quality and transparency in carbon credits Shortcomings in carbon offsets have also emerged in the case of biodiversity offsets, which have been promoted as a way to save forests. However, faced with this challenge, a new type of financial asset has emerged that aims to address biodiversity loss in a measurable and traceable way using biocredits. Biodiversity credits, or biocredits, are a new market innovation that function similarly to carbon credits, as a measurable and traceable unit of biodiversity that can be traded and sold to invest in biodiversity conservation and reduction. of poverty. These pilot schemes for biocredits are emerging around the world to avoid the setbacks faced by carbon credit and offset markets, specifically to ensure that the metrics they use to define a unit of biodiversity include its social and cultural value. For this reason, the UN is facilitating the development of a standard methodology, as are the certifiers Plan Vivo , Verra and Gold Standard. All of this bodes well for the rapid implementation of a mechanism with the potential to save the world's forests. Finally, achieving the net zero emissions goal of the Paris climate agreement requires the rapid expansion of carbon markets, and for carbon credit standards organizations to provide the science-based methodologies that drive quality, action, supply and credibility within voluntary carbon markets.