By Chris Lang In January 2019, Sami Raja was sentenced to eight years in prison at Southwark Crown Court. He was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. Between January 2012 and August 2013, Raja and others miss-sold carbon credits to 130 retail investors. Two companies were involved in the £2.4 million fraud:…
In solidarity with the Sengwer: Extinction Rebellion Scotland block entrance to Kenyan High Commission in London
By Chris Lang Three weeks ago, about 150 Sengwer Indigenous People travelled to Nairobi to deliver a petition to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The petition was signed by 270,000 people and requests recognition of the Sengwer’s land rights in the Embobut forest. The President refused to meet with the Sengwer.
Total greenwash: Total CEO announces oil company will spend US$100 million a year on forest protection and reforestation
By Chris Lang On 6 July 2019, Patrick Pouyanné, the CEO of French oil and gas company Total, announced that his company would invest US$100 million per year in forest protection. Total’s announcement comes shortly after similar announcements by Shell and Eni to offset some of their emissions with forest conservation projects.
“The claim that global tree restoration is our most effective climate change solution is simply incorrect scientifically and dangerously misleading”
By Chris Lang In July 2019, Science magazine published a paper titled, “The global tree restoration potential”. The paper was written predominantly by scientists from the Crowther Lab at ETH–Zürich, and from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The paper resulted in a very large amount of media coverage, and some criticism from climate scientists.
REDD in Guyana: Elite agendas, political temporalities, and the politics of environmental policy failure
By Chris Lang In 2009, Norway launched Guyana’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programme. Back then, it was an amibitious US$250 million scheme. Ten years later Guyana’s REDD programme has been almost completely abandoned.