Groups make case for real solutions to climate change, reject carbon markets

Daniel Kanu

 Civil society and grassroots groups have challenged Parties negotiating at the 25^TH Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change taking place Madrid the Spanish capital to heed the demands of climate-impacted people around the world to advance real and just solutions to address the climate crisis.

The groups that made the call include Friends of the Earth International, Corporate Accountability and the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), representing a broad spectrum of grassroots and climate justice movements.

ERA in a statement made available to Daily Sun said in previous negotiations, countries of the Global North led by the United States (US) ensured that no meaningful advancements towards the real solutions were reached.

“They ensured that policy recommendations to insulate the negotiations from Big Polluters’ interference were shut down while discussions to place carbon markets at the center of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement threatened to derail real solutions including non-market mechanisms.

“While discussions at COP25 will focus on finalizing guidelines for Article 6, climate justice groups believe that Big Polluters are pulling out all the stops to embed dangerous and ineffective carbon markets that will unleash decades more of soaring emissions. They insist that this dangerous corporate agenda is backed by industry groups like the International Emissions Trading Association – one of the most influential trade associations pushing markets at the UNFCCC – representing BP, Shell, and other Big Polluters”.

Also, Dipti Bhatnagar, Climate Justice, and Energy Programme Coordinator for Friends of the Earth International, from Mozambique, noted that “Big polluters must be rubbing their hands in glee that carbon market mechanisms, which further dilute the already weak and inadequate Paris emissions targets, are back on the agenda. We will fight them tooth and nail. The climate crisis is already devastating lives. Emissions are still rising. Now is not the time to offer an escape route to polluting Northern country governments and big oil.”

She insisted that carbon markets fail to deliver emissions reductions or adequate climate action and impact horrifically on Indigenous Peoples and local communities.