March 11, 2010
 
European Commission Position on Carbon Markets Undermines UN Climate Convention
Coalition of non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples’ organizations warns that UN will be sidelined in deal that will lead to massive land grabbing
 
By Rebecca Sommer
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
 
The proposals from the European Commission on post-Copenhagen climate policy that were released on March 10, 2010 will undermine the UN negotiations on climate change, warns a group of forest campaigners. They say the report paves the way for highly volatile carbon markets that jeopardize forest-dependent peoples’ livelihoods, and urges policymakers to focus on domestic emission cuts and finance for forest conservation and restoration instead.
 
The European Commission communication proposes to work together with ‘interested’ developed and developing countries to create sectorial carbon market mechanisms, outside the scope of the UN Climate Change negotiations. Forest campaigners fear chaos if a scheme to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is included in these carbon markets.
 
“Financing forest conservation through carbon markets strongly increases the risks of negative environmental and social impacts”, says Simone Lovera, coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition, that recently launched a report which provides examples of these risks:
 
· In Colombia, carbon traders, are offering forest inhabitants contracts to ‘sell oxygen’ on the international market. These ‘carbon cowboys’ are offering projects in exchange for the right to make decisions about the territory and resources.
 
· In Paraguay, speculation about a market in biodiversity offsets has led to limitation of Indigenous Peoples’ access to their original territories.
 
Recent scandals in countries like Papua New Guinea and Norway have strengthened concerns that carbon markets, especially voluntary carbon markets, can easily lead to corrupt practices.
 
"Voluntary forest carbon offset projects are increasingly leading to forced evictions of Indigenous Peoples and other local communities", alerts Sandy Gauntlett, chairperson of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environmental Coalition (PIPEC)."That is why Indigenous Peoples worldwide are demanding that our rights are recognized before governments continue to experiment with REDD programs and projects."
 
While the European Commission communication recognizes that the so-called Copenhagen Accord [5] fell "well short of the EU's ambition for Copenhagen" and represents "the lowest common denominator", it still proposes to "anchor" this weak compromise in the UN process. These attempts will likely be opposed by the group of developing countries that successfully resisted the adoption of this informal document as a formal UN decision, as they felt the targets in the Copenhagen Accord were far too weak to halt global warming.
 
The Copenhagen Accord was developed at a series of meetings of 29 large countries that took place in the corridors of the official Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is noteworthy the Commission's Communication refers to a "Copenhagen Climate Change Conference" and not the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.