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Carbon market has the potential to unlock billions of dollars for countries in the Global South. But is this voluntary carbon market working for people and the planet?
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India’s lucrative carbon market is worth over $1.2 billion. It will only grow as the crisis of climate change becomes more urgent and companies strive to attain net-zero emission goals
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Voluntary carbon market is a sophisticated ecosystem. It involves a multitude of players to ensure that a carbon offset project delivers on its claims—that it avoids or removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. But in this cosy carbon club, conversations take place behind closed doors and no one wants to talk about the prices. It’s a world designed by developers, verifiers, validators and registries to make money
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1,451. That is the number of projects implemented across India to churn out the new-age essential commodity—carbon credits. Industries and businesses in the West are vying for these credits to clean up their emissions. Over the past months, Down To Earth and the Centre for Science and Environment travelled to 40 villages and towns to know how this market works and who are the people involved in the business. At all the locations, they found that communities, their land and labour, were central to the projects. But community members were almost never aware that they were working to generate carbon credits. Worse, none had the slightest idea that they had already relinquished their rights to carbon credits. The projects also raised fundamental concerns about the accounting practices of these transactions and the companies behind them
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Governments world over continue to issue regulations to rein in the voluntary carbon market, hold it accountable for its acts and ensure sharing of the proceeds with communities. But these steps may not work without international rules to regulate the market. In India, the voluntary market must be regulated and made to contribute to the country’s climate goals
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