News & Press
Watch This! - Civil Society Newsletter
By Andrew Coiley on 15 Dec 2020
Swiss/Peru offset link forged in Paris Agreement – Have we seen this all before?
It’s been dubbed a first of its kind – a new offset deal between Switzerland and Peru under the Paris Agreement. But how ground-breaking is this deal? And has there been any real change from the old offset efforts under the Kyoto Protocol of the past? Because of the postponement of COP26 in Glasgow, rules…
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“Offsetting must not be a license to continue polluting”
We joined the World Press Clubs Alliance for Climate launch event on Friday 23 October. Watch the interview with Sabine Frank here. Companies and governments are announcing “climate-neutrality” targets, and consumers are being offered ways to offset their carbon footprint. What does this mean in practice? How can we distinguish between real climate action and…
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By Gilles Dufrasne on 22 Oct 2020
Up in smoke – California fires once again highlight dangers of forest offsets
Companies are increasingly adopting “climate-neutrality” targets, which often include relying on forests to compensate for pollution. After yet another such offset project was swallowed by flames in California, unresolved questions about forest and land offsets resurface. It’s a simple tagline for green marketing campaigns: “Enjoy our product, it’s climate neutral”. While the tagline is simple,…
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Watch This! - Civil Society Newsletter
By Charles Komanoff on 20 Oct 2020
If the Democrats run the table in November
This is a guest contribution for Watch This! by Charles Komanoff, the director and co-founder of the US based NGO Carbon Tax Centre. We take a deep dive into the US climate politics on the eve of the US presidential elections. This article was first written in July 2020. As in 2016, Democrats appear poised…
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Video: Let’s understand carbon markets
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Watch This! - Civil Society Newsletter
By Andrew Coiley on 30 Jun 2020
What’s next for the aviation sector?
Interview with (Andrew Murphy – Manager, Aviation at NGO Transport & Environment) For decades the aviation industry has enjoyed favourable conditions to expand its operations throughout Europe with little consideration of their climate impact. At the start of 2020, few could have predicted that the sector’s carbon emissions would drop as sharply as they have…
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By Wijnand Stoefs on 28 May 2020
The EU to improve its carbon market rules despite corona – survey
The annual carbon market survey by the financial market data analyst Refinitiv shows high confidence in the European Green Deal in strengthening the EU carbon market. First, the 80 respondents that answered to the questions about EU policies, see the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) as the most important tool for reducing greenhouse gas…
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By Gilles Dufrasne on 1 Apr 2020
ICAO’s carbon market report offers valuable lessons for Article 6 talks
This opinion article was first published in Carbon Pulse on March 30, 2020 As part of the work to establish an international carbon market for aviation, CORSIA, a group of experts recently recommended restrictions for the types of carbon offsets that can and cannot be used by airlines. These restrictions were adopted by the UN aviation…
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By Kaisa Amaral on 16 Mar 2020
ICAO decision on aviation carbon market rules a step in the right direction but fails to exclude all junk credits
MONTREAL/BRUSSELS, 14 March 2020. The UN aviation body ICAO’s Council has agreed to recognise carbon offsets from six existing offset programmes for use by airlines under CORSIA, the UN’s new carbon market for aviation. The Council’s 36 member countries also decided to limit the age of credits used as well as the type of projects eligible. However, the total supply of…
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By Gilles Dufrasne on 20 Jan 2020
International carbon markets at the frontier to the wild west
The failure to agree on rules for international carbon markets at COP 25 has been a victory for some and a disaster for others. Looking at it pragmatically, it was very much a “disaster averted” outcome since the rules on the table would have legitimised the use of markets riddled with loopholes. Far from ideal,…
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