- UK writer Samantha Harvey wins 2024 Booker with space novel
- US bans flights to Haiti after three jetliners hit by gunfire
- Lincicome ends 20-year LPGA career at hometown event
- Canadian women's coach, two aides out after drone scandal
- Sinner turns aside Fritz to close in on ATP Finals last four
- Global stocks slip as markets take post-US election breather
- UN condemns 'acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes' in Gaza
- US bans flights to Haiti as gang violence rages
- Aga Khan emerald fetches record $9 mn in Geneva auction
- Venezuela crackdown helped avert 'civil war': attorney general
- Trump shapes team ahead of White House return
- Climate cash should also go to nuclear, says UN atomic chief
- Free Facebook in EU with less targeted ads
- Dupont set to be fit for New Zealand despite illness
- New balls, please, plead top men's tennis players
- Ban rules Radradra out of Fiji's final November internationals
- US contractor ordered to pay $42 mn to Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib
- Lame-duck US climate team vows to be 'effective' at COP29
- Painter Frank Auerbach, contemporary of Freud and Bacon, dies at 93
- UN carbon market inches closer after COP29 agreement
- US finalizes waste methane fine on drillers, but future uncertain
- Fifteen inmates killed in new Ecuador jail massacre
- Trump tariff worries trip up stocks rally, dollar climbs
- Israel opens Gaza humanitarian crossing but aid groups say not enough
- 35 killed, dozens wounded in south China car ramming
- 'Carbon-neutral' countries demand credit at COP29
- FA investigates Premier League referee Coote over video rant
- Boeing expects post-strike output recovery to take several weeks
- Trump shapes cabinet ahead of White House return
- Blinken in emergency Brussels trip on Ukraine after Trump win
- All Blacks scrum-halves 'inspired' to play 'master' Dupont
- Medvedev sees off De Minaur to boost ATP Finals bid
- Lindt disputes US lawsuit claims, stands by 'excellence' labelling
- Trump tariff worries trip up stocks rally
- UK to beef up its emissions cuts as it bids to be 'climate leader'
- Nations to submit boosted climate plans: what's at stake?
- French footballer Ben Yedder gets suspended jail term for sexual assault
- Nuclear watchdog chief says room to manoeuvre on Iran 'shrinking'
- Russia jails doctor over alleged Ukraine comments during consultation
- EU vessels to cease fishing in Senegal after accord expires
- Bayer shares hit 20-yr low as problems pile up
- Russian MPs pass law banning 'propaganda' of childless lifestyles
- NATO 'must do more than just keep Ukraine in fight', says Rutte
- EU unity in a 'world on fire': Kallas makes top diplomat pitch
- UK vows to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 81% on 1990 levels by 2035
- Crisis-hit Germany headed for February 23 snap election
- C.Africa urges lifting of embargo on diamond exports
- Poland hoping Swiatek can inspire BJK Cup 'revenge' against Spain
- Court challenge begins against UK oil and gas field approvals
- Stock markets retreat on Trump tariff worries
RBGPF | 0.05% | 60.22 | $ | |
BCC | -1.42% | 141.13 | $ | |
NGG | -1.97% | 62.9 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.73% | 24.54 | $ | |
SCS | 0.15% | 13.67 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.85% | 24.75 | $ | |
RYCEF | -2.37% | 7.16 | $ | |
BCE | -0.58% | 27.69 | $ | |
RIO | -2.29% | 61.2 | $ | |
RELX | -2.6% | 46.59 | $ | |
VOD | -10.04% | 8.47 | $ | |
JRI | -2.27% | 13.22 | $ | |
GSK | -2.34% | 35.52 | $ | |
AZN | 0.61% | 65.19 | $ | |
BTI | 0.26% | 35.24 | $ | |
BP | -2.7% | 28.16 | $ |
US announces 'guardrails' for controversial carbon markets to succeed
President Joe Biden's administration announced new "guardrails" it says will ensure that carbon offset markets effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a big boost for the contentious schemes.
Cabinet officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen laid out the government's first broad guidelines for "high-integrity" carbon markets, aimed at dispelling distrust in a system panned by critics as greenwashing.
"It's about building the confidence to be able to use this tool more effectively at scale," White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi told AFP.
"Four years into the decisive decade for climate action, we're not in a position to sideline any set of tools that will help us move faster."
Carbon credits enable corporations and countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, with each credit representing the reduction or removal of one tonne of CO2, often in developing countries through projects combating deforestation.
The carbon offsets market is currently worth around $2 billion per year, but has come under intense fire recently after research has shown that claims of reduced emissions under the schemes are often hugely overestimated -- or simply non-existent.
Yellen outlined principles emphasizing integrity in three key areas: supply-side credits tied to genuine emissions reductions or removals; demand-side corporate accountability that prioritizes emission reduction; and market integrity through greater transparency and reduced complexity.
- US imprimatur -
The release of the guidelines, detailed in a 12-page policy statement, is an important signal the US government is throwing its weight behind carbon markets, Nat Keohane, of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, told AFP.
"Right now, the problem we have is not that all credits are bad -- some are really, really good, and some are bad, and it's hard to tell the difference," he said.
That's where the administration's guidelines come in, he added, "creating convergence and alignment about what good looks like."
Accountability, he said, would be market-driven and come from companies seeking high-quality carbon credits to avoid a public backlash.
While the Biden administration doesn't explicitly endorse emerging sets of standards developed by the two most prominent industry-led bodies -- the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity initiative (VCMI) -- it says these play "an essential role."
Prominent advocates of carbon markets, including former US climate envoy John Kerry, argue that government funding alone is insufficient to meet the Paris accord's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Kenya's President William Ruto has hailed Africa's carbon sinks as an "unparalleled economic goldmine" with the potential to generate billions annually.
- 'Walk the talk' -
But Gilles Dufrasne of Carbon Market Watch told AFP that the US government must "walk the talk" and ensure transparency and integrity in its promises.
"There is currently no public data to transparently measure how much finance is flowing to climate action through carbon credits, and how much is staying in the pockets of global north intermediaries and consultants," he added.
Environmentalists are also concerned about a provision in the guidelines that appears to endorse offsetting pollution from businesses' value chains.
Buying credits to cover so-called "Scope 3 emissions" effectively gives corporations a free pass to keep polluting, say climate advocacy groups.
A recent global scientific review meanwhile found that market-based approaches to forest conservation, including carbon offsets and deforestation-free certification schemes, have largely failed to protect trees or alleviate poverty.
The United Nations COP28 climate talks held in Dubai last year failed to agree on a unified set of global rules governing carbon markets, leaving countries to come up with their own bilateral and regional guidelines -- a situation ripe for greenwashing, according to critics.
W.Lapointe--BTB