By Chris Lang HSBC Global Asset Management and Pollination Group have announced a series of planned billion-dollar funds targetting “natural capital”. The new venture will be called HSBC Pollination Climate Asset Management and aims to raise US$6 billion from institutional investors. But handing over conservation to bankers and neoliberal economists will be a disaster for…
Tag: Financing REDD
Coronavirus notes #1: The magic money tree and universal basic income
By Chris Lang This post is the first in an occasional REDD-Monitor series collecting together some thoughts around the coronavirus crisis. Forests, deforestation and the climate crisis may seem distant problems when we’re all facing the threat of a deadly virus. But when the coronavirus crisis is back under control at some point in the…
Indonesia’s Katingan REDD project sells carbon credits to Shell. But that doesn’t mean the forest is protected. It’s threatened by land conflicts, fires and a palm oil plantation
By Chris Lang The Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project covers an area of about 150,000 hectares in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The project was created in 2007 by an Indonesian company called PT Rimba Makmur Utama. The director of the company is Dharsono Hartono.
Gabon signs US$150 million REDD deal with Norway. Shhh… Don’t mention corruption
At a meeting on 22 September 2019 in New York, Lee White, who was recently appointed Forestry Minister in Gabon, announced a new US$150 million REDD deal with the Central African Forest Initiative. The meeting marked the fifth anniversary of the New York Declaration on Forests. The money will come, surprise, surprise, from Norway.
California approves the Tropical Forest Standard. Good news for the fossil fuel industry. Bad news for the climate crisis
On 19 September 2019, the California Air Resources Board voted 7-4 to approve the Tropical Forest Standard. CARB is determined to convince us that this is not an approval of REDD offsets in California’s cap-and-trade scheme. In a presentation about the Tropical Forest Standard CARB staff point out that, “Endorsement of the Standard Does Not…