scholarly journals The Good Is Never Perfect: Why the Current Flaws of Voluntary Carbon Markets Are Services, Not Barriers to Successful Climate Change Action

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Miltenberger ◽  
Christophe Jospe ◽  
James Pittman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Action Science ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Voluntary Carbon Markets

The world's current level of climate change action does not match its ambitions to tackle the issue, and its ambitions do not currently meet the levels of action science recommends. Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) are one option proposed to lessen those disparities, and have been both criticized and championed by various groups. Critiques note them as being opaque, flawed, and ineffective. Yet they demonstrate tremendous potential for impact and unprecedented levels of finance. We contend that the critiques of these markets are not only resolvable, but are unavoidable challenges that must be addressed on the path to mobilizing climate change ambition and achieving targets. Furthermore, we believe that by 2050, the current discrete market-based solutions in climate action will become internalized aspects of our economies rather than separate remediations. This goal of internalizing the externalities that cause climate change will result in massive, sustained decarbonization, rapid reorganization of global economies, and an extraordinary push to invent, solve, and scale strategies that facilitate the transition. Pricing carbon is a key contemporary step for transitioning to that future. Voluntary carbon markets are one means to catalyze this action and while needing improvements, should be given appropriate leeway to improve and fulfill that role.

cop 25: Losing Sight of (Raising) Ambition

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-160
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck ◽  
Moritz von Unger ◽  
Sandra Greiner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Political Bargaining ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Carbon Economy

The 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (cop-25) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc) became the longest cop on record – but yielded few results. It appears that four years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, enthusiasm has waned and political bargaining and bean-counting have taken over. Countries, for even the slightest chance to keep temperatures ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius, must do much more than they have previously committed to and accelerate the shift towards a zero-carbon economy. However, the conference largely failed to heed the rallying cry of the Chilean presidency. The flagship decisions (grouped under the banner “Chile-Madrid Time for Action”) neither produced new commitments – enhancing ambition or finance for developing countries – nor new rules that would nudge countries closer to the climate action targets needed. The leftover pieces from last year’s negotiations of the “Paris Rulebook” were also not resolved, in particular the unfinished decisions on Article 6 on market- and non-market mechanisms. The procrastination shows that the new architecture of the Paris Agreement, while addressing several of the shortcomings of the Kyoto Protocol, suffers from its own weaknesses. The meager results of Madrid give reason to pause and reflect on the conditions that may hold countries back from fully embracing the Paris Agreement, but also to consider the future and nature of carbon markets and what is making the issue so difficult to resolve.

scholarly journals Unintended Consequences of Agricultural Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets: Their Nature and Avoidance

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Minglu Wang ◽  
Bruce McCarl ◽  
Hanlin Wei ◽  
Layla Shiva
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Rebound Effects ◽  
Voluntary Carbon Markets ◽  
Change Mitigation

Greenhouse gas (GHG) trading markets have been widely discussed for climate change mitigation. However in implementation coverage has not been universal. Agriculture, despite being the source of nearly 25% of net emissions, has not commonly been capped. But it has been mentioned as voluntary source of net emission offsets. Such offsets could arise from action reducing GHG emissions, enhancing sequestration, or producing feedstocks for low emitting bioenergy replacements for fossil based energy. This could be harnessed by setting up voluntary carbon markets that producers could join at their discretion. However, such a scheme could have unintended consequences. We conduct theoretical and empirical analyses of a voluntary “carbon” market examining both intended and unintended effects. We find certain participation rules can stimulate rebound effects from emitters and suppress participation from sequestration and bioenergy producing entities. To overcome this we develop and simulate offset participation limitations that could preclude unintended consequences.

scholarly journals Estimation of carbon storage of forest biomass for voluntary carbon markets: preliminary results

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Nonini ◽  
Marco Fiala
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Aboveground Biomass ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Forest Biomass ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Voluntary Carbon Markets ◽  
Change Mitigation

AbstractEstimating the carbon storage of forests is essential to support climate change mitigation and promote the transition into a low-carbon emission economy. To achieve this goal, voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) are essential. VCMs are promoted by a spontaneous demand, not imposed by binding targets, as the regulated ones. In Italy, only in Veneto and Piedmont Regions (Northern Italy), VCMs through forestry activities were carried out. Valle Camonica District (Northern Italy, Lombardy Region) is ready for a local VCM, but carbon storage of its forests was never estimated. The aim of this work was to estimate the total carbon storage (TCS; t C ha−1) of forest biomass of Valle Camonica District, at the stand level, taking into account: (1) aboveground biomass, (2) belowground biomass, (3) deadwood, and (4) litter. We developed a user-friendly model, based on site-specific primary (measured) data, and we applied it to a dataset of 2019 stands extracted from 45 Forest Management Plans. Preliminary results showed that, in 2016, the TCS achieved 76.02 t C ha−1. The aboveground biomass was the most relevant carbon pool (48.86 t C ha−1; 64.27% of TCS). From 2017 to 2029, through multifunctional forest management, the TCS could increase of 2.48 t C ha−1 (+ 3.26%). In the same period, assuming to convert coppices stands to high forests, an additional TCS of 0.78 t C ha−1 (equal to 2.85 t CO2 ha−1) in the aboveground biomass could be achieved without increasing forest areas. The additional carbon could be certified and exchanged on a VCM, contributing to climate change mitigation at a local level.

scholarly journals Private Governance in Developing Countries: Drivers of Voluntary Carbon Offset Programs

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana B. Andonova ◽  
Yixian Sun
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Private Governance ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Carbon Offset ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Catalytic Role ◽  
Climate Vulnerability ◽  
Voluntary Carbon Markets

In the Paris Agreement era of climate governance, private market-based initiatives are expected to play a catalytic role in achieving global commitments. However, the literature has been largely silent on the political causes of the variable and often limited uptake of such initiatives in the Global South. This article uses original project-level data to investigate the participation in voluntary carbon offset (VCO) programs across developing countries. We argue that, paradoxically, access to formal international institutions and linkages with domestic priorities are key factors for participation in voluntary carbon markets, reducing asymmetries in information, capacity, and interest in developing contexts. Our statistical analysis finds that institutions such as the Clean Development Mechanism and targeted foreign aid, as well as domestic concerns such as climate vulnerability and advancing renewable energy, shape in important ways the variable engagement in VCO projects. Our analysis also suggests that the design of private regulations can be fine-tuned to better capture synergies between local concerns and transnational climate action.

Perdre la mesure… Or, The Ecologics of Extinction

CounterText ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Stefan Herbrechter
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Human Race ◽  
World Picture ◽  
Adequate Measurement ◽  
Ecological Catastrophe

The article takes its cue from Olivier Rey's recent book Une question de taille (a question of size) and develops the idea of humanity ‘losing its measure, or scale’ in the context of contemporary ecological catastrophe. It seems true that the current level of global threats, from climate change to asteroids, has produced a culture of ambient ‘species angst’ living in more or less constant fear about the survival of the ‘human race’, biodiversity, the planet, the solar system. This indeed means that the idea of a cosmos and a cosmology may no longer be an adequate ‘measurement’ for scaling the so far inconceivable, namely a thoroughly postanthropocentric world picture. The question of scale is thus shown to be connected to the necessity of developing a new sense of proportion, an eco-logic that would do justice to both, things human and nonhuman. Through a reading of the recent science fiction film Interstellar, this article aims to illustrate the dilemma and the resulting stalemate between two contemporary ‘alternatives’ that inform the film: does humanity's future lie in self-abandoning or in self-surpassing, in investing in conservation or in exoplanets? The article puts forward a critique of both of these ‘ecologics’ and instead shows how they depend on a dubious attempt by humans to ‘argue themselves out of the picture’, while leaving their anthropocentric premises more or less intact.

The Role of Late-Night Infotainment Comedy in Communicating Climate Change Consensus

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward John Roy Clarke ◽  
Anna Klas ◽  
Joshua Stevenson ◽  
Emily Jane Kothe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Mitigation Policy ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
Late Night ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Adaptation Policies ◽  
Diverse Audience

Climate change is a politically-polarised issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to perceive it as human-caused and consequential. Furthermore, they are less likely to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarised or depolarised a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioural intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one gender unspecified, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarisation (or increase it) relative to a control on mitigation policy support, it resulted in hyperpolarisation on support for adaptation policies and increased climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.

scholarly journals The opportunity cost of delaying climate action: Peatland restoration and resilience to climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 102323
Author(s):  
Klaus Glenk ◽  
Michela Faccioli ◽  
Julia Martin-Ortega ◽  
Christoph Schulze ◽  
Jacqueline Potts
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Peatland Restoration ◽  
Climate Action

scholarly journals Trade, Climate and Energy: A New Study on Climate Action through Free Trade Agreements

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4363
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Dent
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Trade Partners

Efforts to tackle climate change are taking place on multiple fronts. This includes trade, an increasingly important defining feature of the global economy. In recent years, free trade agreements (FTAs) have become the primary mechanism of trade policy and diplomacy. This study examines the development of climate action measures in FTAs and discusses what difference they can make to tackling climate change. Its primary source research is based on an in-depth examination of FTAs in force up to 2020. This paper is structured around a number of research questions forming around three main inter-related areas of enquiry. Firstly, to what extent are these provisions in FTAs essentially derivative of energy’s connections with climate change, and thus part of a wider trade–climate–energy nexus? Secondly, what kinds of climate action are FTAs specifically promoting, and how effective a potential positive impact may we expect these to have? Thirdly, are certain climate action norms being promoted by trade partners in FTAs and if so, then who are the norm leaders, what is motivating them, and to what extent are they extending their influence over other trade partners? In addressing these questions, this study offers new insights and analysis regarding a potentially important emerging trend in the trade–climate–energy nexus. Its international political economy approach and latest empirical research also provide a further distinctive contribution to knowledge in this inter-disciplinary area, developing new comprehensions of the relationship between trade, climate action and energy.

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