Poor farmers in Africa say they are being shut out of the international carbon trading market despite their potential as a source of offset opportunities. Check out this article from Business Daily, out of Nairobi:
To a large extent, the problem lies with the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme. Under this system, European firms may purchase carbon credits from industrial sources but not from forestry, agriculture or "agroforestry" projects.This is one of those stories that really rams home the international nature of what a comprehensive solution to global warming needs to look like. Allowing rural Africans to participate in carbon trading would encourage the growth of sustainable reforestation projects in some of the countries that will be hardest hit by climate change.
5 comments:
Hmm, funny, what it reminds me of is that the global warming scare is good for the rich in poor countries, and bad for the poor in rich countries.
is this site real? Carbon offsets are the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. All it does is pay people who arn't producing anything. It's global welfare on a country scale!!!
Carbon offsetting is not stupid. If person A makes a widget that costs £1, with CO2 emission value 2 and person B can make the same widget at lower emission value, person B deserves to be rewarded (at the cost of person A), for producing the widget at lower environmental cost. Capitalism is a good economic system, but is not per se able to place a value upon environment. Carbon offset schemes are a useful idea to amend this weakness. Have a look my web log. ;)
Carbon offsets, or "credits" are only good for companies that manage them.
Al Gore's company is one of them.
P.T. Barnum said it best: "There's a sucker born every minute".
ps. I like your blog.
All these schemes seem so open to exploitation. Like the free low energy light globes and low flow shower heads they give away in the malls here in Australia.
Most of the units end up uninstalled and the credits earned / onsold just allow addition to CO2 load.
Before credit is given it should be proven that the energy saver device is actually in use and replacing the higher usage unit.
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