Skip to content
Menu
REDD-Monitor
  • Start here
  • About REDD-Monitor
  • REDD: An introduction
  • Contact
REDD-Monitor

Keep forests out of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

Posted on 18 December 200820 March 2015
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Email this to someone
email

Allowing carbon credits from forests to be traded under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) would create a enormous loophole, allowing EU Member States to buy their way out of emissions reductions.

A coalition of European NGOs is campaigning to keep forests out of the ETS. The December 2008 issue of FERN’s EU Forest Watch provides a succinct summary of the current state of the EU/ETS discussions.

Keep forests out of the ETS

 
EU Forest Watch, FERN.
Issue 133, December 2008
 
As negotiations to revise the ETS directive proceed, the EU Council and Parliament still seem to disagree about whether to allow forest credits in the European Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).¹ If included, Member States could offset their emissions by buying forestry credits in developing countries rather than reduce their own emissions. The Council and Parliament are expected to come to an agreement on the revised ETS Directive.
 
In a separate process, on 4 December 2008 the Council adopted conclusions on the Commission Communication on avoided deforestation.² These are the outcome of a fierce last-minute battle as a coalition of Member States, under pressure from polluting and forestry industries and some conservationists, tried to subvert the precautionary approach proposed by the Commission regarding inclusion of forest credits (see FW 131).
 
Thanks to Germany’s leadership, the Council did not endorse the ETS inclusion of forests, but it invited the Commission to assess the implications of forest credits for partial fulfillment of commitments and was open to the idea of their recognition for EU ETS compliance. It acknowledged clearly the need for effective forest governance and respect for the rights of forest-dependent communities. How these key requirements fit a market-based mechanism remains unanswered.
 
FERN, FoE, Global Witness, Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation sent a letter³ to the Parliament and the Council expressing their concerns and alerting the EU institutions to the body of research underscoring the negative consequences that the inclusion of forest credits in the ETS would have for the climate, forests and local communities. Their inclusion would also undermine the effectiveness and credibility of the ETS itself.
 
Emission reductions must take place first and foremost at home, so if the EU is serious about improving its carbon footprint, it must reject forest credits outright. Attempting to tackle deforestation while not sufficiently decreasing greenhouse gas emissions is futile.
 


1. 2003/87/CE establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading.

2. “Conclusions on addressing the challenges of deforestation and forest degradation to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss,” available here.

3. See www.fern.org for joint NGO letter asking for exclusion of forest credits in ETS.

 

Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Email this to someone
email

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

SUBSCRIBE!

Enter your email address to receive notification of new posts.

Recent themes
Natural Climate Solutions
WWF's conservation scandals
Aviation and offsetting
Conservation Watch

REDDisms

“In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They’re what botanists would call an indicator species. It’s almost as though the greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism, the greater the outbreak of NGOs.”

— Arundhati Roy, Massalijn, September 2014

Recent Posts

  • Graeme Biggar, Director-General of the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre: “There is not a sufficient deterrent for fraudsters and there is insufficient recourse for victims”
  • Coronavirus notes #7: How the Colombian government is rolling back social and environment safeguards during the pandemic
  • Peru cancels its World Bank FCPF Carbon Fund programme
  • The World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s latest hot air scam: Retroactive credits
  • Some questions for Frithjof Finkbeiner, founder of Plant-for-the-Planet

Recent Comments

  • Arthur Charles Claxton on Graeme Biggar, Director-General of the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre: “There is not a sufficient deterrent for fraudsters and there is insufficient recourse for victims”
  • Chris Lang on Blackmore Bond collapse: Financial Conduct Authority is “responsible for every penny lost”
  • Sam on Blackmore Bond collapse: Financial Conduct Authority is “responsible for every penny lost”
  • barrywarden on Coronavirus notes #7: How the Colombian government is rolling back social and environment safeguards during the pandemic
  • Chris Lang on Why has the Financial Conduct Authority not taken down the website of the clone scam “Good Investment Advisors”?

Issues and Organisations

AB 32 Boiler rooms Bonn California Can REDD save ... ? Carbon accounting Carbon Credits Carbon Offsets CDM Conservation-Watch Conservation International COP21 Paris Deforestation FCPF FERN Financing REDD Forest definition Fossil fuels FPP Friends of the Earth FSC Greenpeace Guest post ICAO Illegal logging Indigenous Peoples Natural Climate Solutions NGO statements Plantations Poznan R-M interview REDD and rights REDD in the news Risk RSPO-Watch Safeguards Sengwer Sustainable Forest Management The Nature Conservancy Ulu Masen UN-REDD UNFCCC World Bank WRM WWF

Countries

Australia Bolivia Brazil Cambodia Cameroon Canada China Colombia Congo Basin region DR Congo Ecuador El Salvador European Union France Germany Guatemala Guyana Honduras India Indonesia Kenya Laos Luxembourg Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Republic of Congo Sweden Tanzania Thailand Uganda UK Uncategorized United Arab Emirates USA Vietnam West Papua
©2021 REDD-Monitor | Powered by WordPress and Superb Themes!