Carbon markets are dodgy AF
They risk undermining Africa’s climate adaptation – and allow rich countries to keep evading responsibility.
The Nairobi Declaration from September’s inaugural African Climate Summit proposes carbon markets as a solution to the climate crisis. Carbon markets are now African leaders’ top agenda at COP28, the United Nations annual climate summit currently happening in Dubai.
This should be of serious concern to Africans.
Carbon trading enables polluters to continue profiting from emissions at the expense of everyone else. Commodifying nature in exchange for undeterred pollution is neither a just nor a wise response to the climate crisis.
The trade allows heavy greenhouse gas emitters to buy carbon credits from others, ostensibly offsetting their emissions. The most popular trades in Africa involve getting countries on the continent to adapt to renewable energy, plant trees and protect natural forests. In return, emitters like oil and gas companies can give them some money and claim carbon credits that allow them to offset their own emission.
The Africa Carbon Markets Initiative was established at COP27 in Egypt.
African countries already trading carbon credits, often at small scale, include Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Gabon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Madagascar, Ghana and Mozambique. African leaders see this entry into the carbon market as a way to fund climate adaptation and mitigation.
Though endorsed by leaders, the carbon credit system is not in Africa’s interest. It shifts obligation from the wealthy countries most responsible to the poorer countries most affected.
It overburdens poor countries with adaptation and mitigation (plant trees, build solar projects) while allowing wealthy ones to shirk their responsibility to reduce the emissions that caused the crisis in the first place.
Using money in this way to trade off a duty is morally reprehensible.
Carbon markets are also insufficient in taming runaway pollution. Yes, forests sink some of the carbon emitted by industrialised economies. But to keep global warming below two degrees, as scientists agree we must, carbon sinking cannot be just another commodity in the market economy and should only be pursued in addition to zero-emission targets which may require abandoning use of fossil fuels altogether.
Any money Africa makes from the carbon markets will be insufficient against the magnitude of climate crisis impacts on its communities. Mitigating and responding to flooding, droughts, famine, displacement, hurricanes, and tropical storms requires substantially more investment than carbon markets can unlock.
The African Carbon Market Initiative seeks $6-billion through 2030 but the continent needs $ 1.7-trillion for climate adaptation by 2035. And given that carbon credit demand fell by 7% over the last two years, even the $6-billion may remain just a dream.
Moreover, carbon offset projects may inadvertently create other problems.
Planting quick-maturing trees to absorb carbon is a mainstay of offset projects, but these degrade soil by absorbing and reducing soil moisture, undermining agricultural productivity and creating food insecurity in rural areas.
Carbon offset projects have also led to forced evictions of rural communities and other human rights violations. The ongoing eviction of the Ogiek from forest land is linked to Kenya’s carbon trading ventures. Similar claims emerged in Liberia where the government is leasing about 10% of the country’s land area to a Dubai firm, Blue Carbon.
Finally, without local legislation to regulate carbon trading, including how its proceeds are shared between corporations, governments and communities, African leaders are putting the cart before the horse in going to the carbon markets. Gabon received $150-million to preserve its rainforests but the benefit to rural communities is unclear.
The climate crisis will not be addressed without the bolder, more assertive leadership of African states witnessed at the Africa Climate Summit. But that leadership must be in service of people, not profit.
Going into COP28, African delegates must unequivocally reject commodifying and commercialising pollution. It is time for our governments to recognise that carbon trading, anchored on the Paris Agreement and Nairobi Declaration, is a false solution – morally dubious and ineffective.