{"id":46539,"date":"2022-06-17T14:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T13:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=46539"},"modified":"2022-06-22T09:33:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T08:33:24","slug":"data-exclusive-the-junk-carbon-offsets-revived-by-the-glasgow-pact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2022\/06\/17\/data-exclusive-the-junk-carbon-offsets-revived-by-the-glasgow-pact\/","title":{"rendered":"Data exclusive: The ‘junk’ carbon offsets revived by the Glasgow Pact"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 9 June 2011, fighting broke out<\/a> at the Dapein hydropower plant in the northernmost state of Myanmar between the Kachin Independence Organisation\u2019s military arm and Burmese soldiers posted there to protect the dam. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It broke a 17-year ceasefire in a long and little reported conflict<\/a> between the largely Christian minority group and government militias. Scores of people were killed and up to 100,000 refugees are still living in camps in the borderland with China.<\/p>\n

Gumring Hkanda was born in a village of Kachin state. He now researches the conflict through a cultural lens at the University of Manchester. He described the violence as \u201cmost brutal and cruel\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s been an awful 11 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A joint venture between Chinese state-owned company Datang and the Myanmar\u2019s state electric power enterprise, the Dapein dam<\/a> became a battleground<\/a> for social struggles, representing military oppression while exporting nearly all the electricity back to China. \u201cThese mega dams are fueling further conflict, not benefitting the people of Burma,\u201d Sai Sai of the Burma Rivers network said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The dam prevented greenhouse gas emissions compared to the alternative of coal-fired power generation. And despite its troubled history, those carbon savings have currency today.<\/p>\n

Exclusive analysis of publicly available data<\/a> for Climate Home News shows that the Dapein dam is one of at least 804 projects whose past emission reductions can be bought by countries as a cheap way to meet their climate targets.<\/p>\n

Under rules agreed<\/a> at last year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow, UK, carbon credits generated by these projects are eligible for use towards national 2030 emissions goals.<\/p>\n

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The Dapein hydropower dam in Kachin state, Myanmar (Photo: China Railway Water Conservancy & Hydropower Planning and Design Group Co. Ltd<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

While conflict in Kachin was raging, the 240MW dam was registered<\/a> with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), at the start of 2013.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest carbon offsetting programme, established under the Kyoto Protocol by UN Climate Change, the CDM allowed rich countries to meet some of their climate obligations by financing carbon-cutting projects in poorer ones.<\/p>\n

The scheme has been widely criticised<\/a> for its patchy human rights record<\/a> and failure to deliver promised climate benefits<\/a>. Projects were approved without always consulting local communities and, at times, causing them harm.<\/p>\n

The Kyoto Protocol has been superseded by the Paris Agreement, which requires every country to contribute climate targets. And yet, old credits that meet certain criteria are still available for governments and companies to buy, promoted by UN Climate Change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really problematic,\u201d said Jonathan Crook, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch. \u201cMost of these are poor-quality credits, many from almost 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call them \u2018junk\u2019 or \u2018zombie\u2019 credits because they are unlikely to represent real environmental integrity,\u201d he said. \u201cThese\u00a0largely\u00a0worthless credits now have a\u00a0stamp of approval, which gives them more credibility and means they could\u00a0be used for greenwashing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In total, an estimated 320 million old credits<\/a> \u2013 equivalent to the annual emissions of 86 coal-fired power plants \u2013 are available for nations to count towards their climate commitments.<\/p>\n

Climate Home’s data analysis<\/a> reveals which of the CDM\u2019s more than 8,200 projects are allowed to carry over into the new Paris Agreement regime.<\/p>\n

India alone is home to close to half of CDM projects eligible to sell old emission cuts. This is followed by China with 12% and Brazil with 6.5%.<\/p>\n