The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has contributed to this broken food and farming system through the promotion of agro-industrial farming methods and global commodity chains. In order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement, the EU must carry out a radical reform of the CAP and …
This week key policymakers of the European Parliament discuss the EU’s largest climate instrument. Ahead of the debate, five organizations expose how a loophole in the law could significantly increase the costs of post-2030 climate efforts by delaying the required emission reductions in the agriculture sector. The Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) covers around 60% of …
Read more “The cost of climate inaction in the agricultural sector”
Forests and land-use remain a contentious issue in climate negotiations but are an essential part of many countries’ climate pledges. The sector should be used as an additional climate tool, not as an excuse to reduce ambition in others. At the UN climate conference in Marrakesh, discussions on land use remained gridlocked because of the …
Read more “Forests must not be used to undermine climate commitments”
The Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) has faced criticism for purchasing CDM carbon credits from a tree plantation project at Kachung, Uganda. The SEA signed a 20 year (2012-2032) purchase agreement with Norwegian company Green Resources, but later suspended payments due to problems with the project. In March 2016 the SEA announced that it would not …
CLICK THE RED BUTTON TO JOIN THE AVIATION TWITTER THUNDERCLAP ON SEPTEMBER 27TH Carbon Market Watch have launched a global online campaign to raise awareness on the upcoming ICAO deal, that is crucial for the climate but not known by the large public and to show airlines, a fundamental ICAO influencer, as well as governments, the decision makers, …
Land use remained a contentious topic at the Paris climate summit this December with onlookers wondering how land and its capacity to absorb carbon would be incorporated into the final agreement. While initial worries about the treatment of land in the Paris Agreement were ironed out in the final agreement, the development of rules and modalities in the coming years will need to permanently close doors to using the land to offset continued fossil fuel use.
Land-use has always been a tricky subject, complicated even more by the fact that countries are putting land use into their INDCs, without clear measures and accounting rules. If, as with some parties, accounting rules hide CO2 released when harvesting, emissions will go unnoticed and the true amount of emission reductions achieved by land activities …
Read more “Leave poor land-use alone, he has his own problems”
One of the reasons climate change is so difficult to address is the sheer range of sources and sectors that contribute to the problem. Some policies and measures are targeted to address certain sources, but one of the perceived advantages of carbon markets is that they allow a number of sources to be bundled under …
Read more “WATCH THIS! NGO Newsletter #13: Is all carbon created equal?”
Last June, during the UNFCCC meeting in Bonn, Germany, many NGOs were surprised when Parties reached agreement on the framework for REDD+, including on safeguards. Expectations were low following the collapse of talks in December 2014 at COP20 in Lima, with influential developing countries refusing to agree any further decisions beyond the “Warsaw Framework” agreed …
Read more “WATCH THIS! NGO Newsletter #12: UNFCCC agrees minimum guidance on REDD+ safeguards”
A new report from the Öko-Institut shows that the use of forestry offsets to replace efforts in other sectors would undermine the EU’s 2030 climate target by 5%. The legislative proposal for the land use sector that the European Commission is expected to present early next year should therefore uphold the environmental integrity of the EU’s 2030 climate target by treating the emissions and removals from our forests and soils completely separate from the efforts of other sectors.
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