Carbon credits are harming African communities
Carbon credits are harming African communities
Rosebell Kagumire writes:
Big polluting countries are not cutting their CO2 emissions, they are exploiting Africa’s forests. More UN climate talks are starting in Dubai on 30 November 2023, and we must look very closely at the actions of the countries and companies earning most from fossil fuels.
Climate talks are still where power leads. The promises by rich and powerful countries are not good enough to make the changes needed to stop global warming. Often there is a lot of talk about the needs of marginalized populations in the Majority World but no real action.
There were wildfires across Southern Europe, North Africa, and North America in 2023 and the hottest three weeks on record. Floods in Asia and long droughts in the Horn of Africa left millions of people with not enough food and many thousands of people dead. But big polluters are busy using the ecology of developing nations as ways of making money.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is hosting the 28th (COP28) climate meeting and UAE is still increasing fossil fuel production. And UAE companies are controlling land in Africa for agriculture, tourism, and carbon credit schemes.
In recent years, the Tanzanian government evicted Masai communities in the north of the country from their traditional land to make way for conservation and tourism. We think it affected about 70,000 people. The government plans to lease land to the UAE safari company, Otterlo Business Corporation for a wildlife area for hunting and tourism for the very rich.
In Liberia, there is a possible business plan to give the rights to over 1 million hectares of forest to a private UAE company, Blue Carbon. This is about 10 per cent of the country’s land. The plan is to create protected forests to make carbon credits for sale or trade between Liberia and other governments. This allows polluting countries or businesses to ‘offset’ their emissions. Blue Carbon has similar business deals in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Aissatou Keita is a member of the National Platform of Actors for Climate Justice in Senegal. She says these projects are giving ‘ the rights to pollute’ to industry. She says, ‘It is clear that carbon projects help polluters to continue their terrible activities and to give them back a good image.’
The UAE is, of course, not the only one trying to make money from carbon credits. There is a a similar plan for a mangrove reforestation and carbon credits paid for by the big oil company Shell in the Saloum Delta, Senegal.
Aby Sene-Harper is an assistant professor in the Parks and Conservation Area Management department at Clemson University in the US. She says ‘so many carbon and biodiversity offsets projects are increasing in Africa’ and they are ‘terrible death-making capitalist plans to make more money and control resources by a few.’ She says it is just making OK the theft by oil industries/ Anne Songole is an eco-feminist and climate justice activist. She says, ‘Carbon markets are not a solution. They take away the responsibility for climate change from the biggest polluters. Carbon credits make sure rich nations still make money from fossil fuels.’
It is very likely that carbon credit schemes will be under discussion at COP28 but climate justice campaigners and affected communities will find it very difficult to get their messages heard. We must fight the rush to take away ecological resources from the land of their Indigenous peoples because they are affected most. We must demand greater commitments and actions for a fair energy transition.
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(This article is in easier English so it is possible that we changed the words, the text structure, and the quotes.)