Post by account_disabled on Feb 26, 2024 23:01:05 GMT -5
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that carbon offsets need oversight in the country, after an investigation will reveal that oil giant BP Plc paid only a fraction of the current cost for the carbon credits they generated Veracruz ejidatarios of Coatitila, according to El Financiero .
In the fight against climate change, more and more Chinese American Phone Number List industries are seeking to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; to this end, many have resorted to offsetting their environmental footprint through carbon credits. These types of projects are very frequently created through agricultural or forestry practices. In this sense, a carbon credit represents a type of permit that a company acquires to offset its own GHG emissions.
However, without clear rules and transparency around carbon credits, people living in offset regions could be left exposed to exploitation in the name of climate progress. For this reason, the Mexican president calls for the regulation of this market.
Carbon credits in Mexico, “a bargain”
After two years of work, at the end of 2021, 133 residents of Coatitila, a community in the state of Veracruz, received a remuneration of four dollars per person as part of the carbon credit program that operates in 59 other locations.
Since 2019, Coatitla leaders agreed with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to reforest their communally owned forests and improve forest management. In exchange, a US government agency and oil giant BP would buy the carbon credits to support them.
Thanks to this program, BP could hold carbon credits as an investment or sell them to third parties, while boosting the development of rural economies and protecting endangered forests in Mexico.
AMLO: Carbon offsets need supervision
Following the investigation by Bloomberg , AMLO—the acronym by which the president is known—said that carbon offsets need supervision. In addition to meeting with the organizations that participated in the negotiations to request a fair distribution of the benefits. For his part, the politician promised to implement actions to "regulate" these projects and prevent such cases from being repeated.
The truth is that by paying approximately four dollars, BP has only disbursed 15% of what is offered for this type of bond. The survey showed that buyers were willing to give more than twice as much for the offsets, which now have an average market value of $12 to $16.
Given this, Javier Warman, director of Forests at WRI Mexico, assured that they are aware that this is a low price. Although, he added that when the initiative began, there was no demand or much issue about it, so the decision to accept "four was better than nothing."
The truth is that this type of bonds grew to one billion last year, although its legitimacy still causes uncertainty.
Lack of regulation in the issuance of bonds
Added to the lack of support is the lack of information that community leaders face. «Nobody explains it to you, that's why you don't find out. You find out until the end," said one of them. And, continuing with Bloomberg's investigation, in 2021 when the contract was signed there was no established price for carbon credit projects.
The media estimates that in 2020 the average cost for these compensations was $5.60 per ton and $4.73 in 2021, but the amounts vary greatly depending on geography, type and quality of the project.
For its part, ICICO, a non-profit organization with several carbon offset plans operating in Oaxaca, indicated that it produced an average of $9.75 from 2019 to 2020.
In the fight against climate change, more and more Chinese American Phone Number List industries are seeking to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; to this end, many have resorted to offsetting their environmental footprint through carbon credits. These types of projects are very frequently created through agricultural or forestry practices. In this sense, a carbon credit represents a type of permit that a company acquires to offset its own GHG emissions.
However, without clear rules and transparency around carbon credits, people living in offset regions could be left exposed to exploitation in the name of climate progress. For this reason, the Mexican president calls for the regulation of this market.
Carbon credits in Mexico, “a bargain”
After two years of work, at the end of 2021, 133 residents of Coatitila, a community in the state of Veracruz, received a remuneration of four dollars per person as part of the carbon credit program that operates in 59 other locations.
Since 2019, Coatitla leaders agreed with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to reforest their communally owned forests and improve forest management. In exchange, a US government agency and oil giant BP would buy the carbon credits to support them.
Thanks to this program, BP could hold carbon credits as an investment or sell them to third parties, while boosting the development of rural economies and protecting endangered forests in Mexico.
AMLO: Carbon offsets need supervision
Following the investigation by Bloomberg , AMLO—the acronym by which the president is known—said that carbon offsets need supervision. In addition to meeting with the organizations that participated in the negotiations to request a fair distribution of the benefits. For his part, the politician promised to implement actions to "regulate" these projects and prevent such cases from being repeated.
The truth is that by paying approximately four dollars, BP has only disbursed 15% of what is offered for this type of bond. The survey showed that buyers were willing to give more than twice as much for the offsets, which now have an average market value of $12 to $16.
Given this, Javier Warman, director of Forests at WRI Mexico, assured that they are aware that this is a low price. Although, he added that when the initiative began, there was no demand or much issue about it, so the decision to accept "four was better than nothing."
The truth is that this type of bonds grew to one billion last year, although its legitimacy still causes uncertainty.
Lack of regulation in the issuance of bonds
Added to the lack of support is the lack of information that community leaders face. «Nobody explains it to you, that's why you don't find out. You find out until the end," said one of them. And, continuing with Bloomberg's investigation, in 2021 when the contract was signed there was no established price for carbon credit projects.
The media estimates that in 2020 the average cost for these compensations was $5.60 per ton and $4.73 in 2021, but the amounts vary greatly depending on geography, type and quality of the project.
For its part, ICICO, a non-profit organization with several carbon offset plans operating in Oaxaca, indicated that it produced an average of $9.75 from 2019 to 2020.