By Chris Lang
This year’s UN climate conference started this weekend in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. We can expect lots of talk, very little action, and no mention of the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. And, as usual, there will be an emphasis on false solutions, like carbon trading.
The Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance has more than 40 members consisting of civil society groups, peoples organisations, faith-based groups, and independent researchers from around the world. In a press release put out just before COP27, CLARA states, “Burning fossil fuels cannot be offset by land-based removals in carbon markets.”
The Land Gap
CLARA refers to a report published last week, “The Land Gap Report”, which calculates the total area of land that would be needed to meet governments’ proposals for “nature based solutions“.
The authors calculate that 1.2 billion hectares of land would be required. That’s larger than the US and four times the size of India. It’s an area “close to the extent of current global cropland”, the report states.
“Countries treat land like a limitless resource in their climate plans,” Kate Dooley, lead author and a researcher at the University of Melbourne, told Reuters.
Instead of relying of offsets, CLARA is calling for COP27 to launch a work programme for the Article 6.8 framework for non-market approaches.
Here is CLARA’s press release:
‘NO ROOM FOR OFFSETS’ CONFIRMED BY LAND GAP REPORT
ARTICLE 6.8 PROGRAM FOR NON-MARKET ACTIVITIES MUST BE LAUNCHED NOW
CLARA Briefing from the COP27 Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh Earth contains no room for offsets, confirmed The Land Gap Report released Thursday, and the Article 6.8 program for non-market approaches must be launched now, say members of the Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance (CLARA) as the COP27 climate change conference opens tomorrow in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
In another year of catastrophic storms, floods, droughts and wildfires, against a backdrop of geopolitical volatility, high energy prices, and threat of economic recession, two issues will dominate:
- Finance: 1) a dedicated funding mechanism for loss and damage to vulnerable countries who are least responsible for but most affected by climate change; and 2) mobilization of USD 100 billion per year promised 13 years ago by developed countries to developing countries at COP15; and
- Ambition: 1) increasing 2030 pledges as promised by countries last year in Glasgow; and 2) implementing the final parts of the Paris Agreement, including the ‘balanced package’ on Article 6 as promised by countries last year in Glasgow.
No Room for Offsets
Burning fossil fuels cannot be offset by land-based removals in carbon markets, according to CLARA, a global civil society alliance with members from conservation, agroecology, land-rights, faith-based, and forest restoration organizations and communities.
The Land Gap Report released Thursday calculates the total area of land needed to meet projected biological carbon removal in national climate pledges at almost 1.2 billion hectares, an area larger than the United States and almost as large as the current agriculture land footprint. That’s before factoring in private sector net-zero pledges. A recent study by Oxfam found that net-zero claims from Total Energies, Shell, ENI and BP alone would require 70 million hectares of land by 2050.
Land-based carbon removals can make an important contribution to mitigation efforts only if they are accompanied by rapid and deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions from all sources: they must complement and not offset fossil fuel and other emission reductions, according to the report.
Article 6.8
CLARA calls for the immediate launch at COP27 of a work programme for the Article 6.8 framework for non-market approaches.
In contrast to the intense burst of rule-writing since July under the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body, attention to non-market activities under Article 6.8 has languished completely. The UNFCCC Secretariat has not provided any sustained focus on non-market approaches (NMA), not unlike the fact that Article 6.8 provisions have struggled to find negotiating attention and buy-in from Parties in the global north.
The Article 6.8 work programme should consist of a transparent Registry that links achievement of nationally determined contributions to finance, and a UNFCCC web-based platform for parties to identify NMAs and provide ‘matchmaking’ to finance, from governments (for instance, implementation of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests), philanthropy (for instance, implementation of commitments made in Glasgow to local communities and Indigenous Peoples), and to corporate contributions as part of climate action, not offsets.
Creation of an Article 6.8 work programme to scale up these non-market and cost-effective approaches to joint mitigation and adaption need not await the outcome of other Article 6 negotiations. CLARA calls for equal time devoted to bringing forward the balanced package on Article 6 mechanisms agreed at Glasgow.
Quotes
From Catalina Gonda, FARN
“Countries are not taking nearly enough action to prevent and address the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. No matter how much progress is made at COP27 on mitigation and finance, if countries and non-state actors keep focusing on setting up loopholes through global carbon markets instead of addressing the root causes of climate change, there will never be climate justice.”
From Souparna Lahiri, Global Forest Coalition
“It was clear from the Bonn meetings in June that the Article 6.8 and the non-market approach to joint adaptation and mitigation is ready for operationalization at COP27. That should be in the agenda of the SBSTA Chair and the COP Presidency. Operationalisation of Article 6.8 will realise the demand of the Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities for direct access to climate finance and facilitate real climate solutions to real zero.”
From Peter Riggs, Pivot Point
‘CLARA has long maintained the position that offsets are incompatible with keeping warming to 1.5 degrees. A report released this week, led by the University of Melbourne, shows that pledges made by countries already implicate an area of land larger than the United States. That is, a global team of researchers found already an over-reliance on land in the mitigation pledges made by countries – and that’s even before considering the additional demands on land being made as part of private-sector ‘net zero’ commitments. There’s just no room for offsets to be used in corporate net-zero pledges. Net zero pledges based on the use of land for mitigation purposes, to excuse weak ambition in another sector, is a ‘false solution’ and should be rejected as part of Article 6.4.”
From Kelly Stone, ActionAid USA and CLARA Coordinator
“The findings of The Land Gap Report should be a wake-up call for everyone who cares about human rights and climate action. The net-zero pledges that rely heavily on land-based carbon removals represent a major threat to land rights, food security and the rights of indigenous people for communities globally. Planting trees cannot make up for failing to rapidly reduce fossil fuel emissions.
“The window for action to meet the vital 1.5°C goal is closing and people are facing increasing and devastating climate impacts right now. Waiting any longer for deep emission reductions and needed climate finance is not an option.”
About CLARA
CLARA (Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance), a global civil society alliance with more than 40 members from conservation, agroecology, land-rights, faith-based, and forest restoration organizations and communities, is providing analysis on land use, forests, agriculture, and human rights from the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 6-25 November. CONTACT: Don Lehr / [email protected] / +1.917.304.4058
This briefing does not necessarily express the opinions of all CLARA members.
PHOTO Credit: The Land Gap Report.
Even if offsets did anything meaningful, they were never intended to address the concerns of COP27, which is to ACTUALLY FUND the adaptation & mitigation system. AS I have said previously, the simplest way to fund those measures is with oxygen-pricing, that would be a major flux of funding from “rich” countries to those most suffering from the effects of climate change. BTW, 1.5 degrees is in the rear-view mirror, we shoot past that in the next El Nino. https://www.mccroskey.ca/kathleen/oxygen.htm