During COP 19 in Warsaw, Adela Putinelu from Carbon Market Watch was interviewed by the UNFCCCS studio. She underlined the impact of offsetting both in the European Emissions Trading Scheme, the EU ETS, and on the local communities affected by CDM projects.

Firstly, the use of offsetting has had a detrimental impact on the functioning of the market with 2/3 of offsets accounting for the oversupply by 2020 according to European Commission’s estimates. Moreover, a large part of these are likely not to represent real emission reductions.

Secondly, negative social and environmental impacts as well as human rights abuses have been observed in relation to registered CDM projects. Carbon Market Watch has hosted a side event where affected communities and the current CDM Executive Board Chair were among panellists. While panellists acknowledged that human rights abuses have zero tolerance inside the UNFCCC an institutional safeguarding mechanism is yet to be adopted. Meanwhile, as there is little political willingness to address CDM reform at UNFCCC level, it is the duty of EU buyers to ensure the quality of their offsets by implementing further quality restrictions.