HomeMy WebLinkAbout121522 PUBLIC COMMENT_ Fraud in the Carbon Offsets Market________________________________
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Commissioners,
For Jefferson County to trust that the state’s carbon program will be fully vetted is naïve. It is literally impossible to ensure with any degree of confidence that the credits will
produce the intended results.
There is a huge – and growing – secondary market in carbon credits; there is a strong likelihood that the state’s credits will end up there and will be redirected to allow giant polluters
to continue their evil ways. Think of it as money laundering on a planet-wide scale; i.e., greenwashing.
I’ve included a link below to an article that goes into some detail, but for those who don’t have the time or interest in reading all 40 pages, the summary is below.
Thank you,
Tom Thiersch
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Conclusion
The rapid growth of the market for voluntary carbon offsets, paired with proliferation in the use of offsets by businesses to achieve net-zero commitments, poses an important public
policy problem. Businesses are increasingly purchasing offsets to justify continued carbon emissions, but the significant quality problems throughout the market cast doubt on whether
these instruments are really doing what they claim—and worse, they may be leading to more emissions than otherwise would be occurring. Offsets, particularly nature-based offsets, are
so flawed that unless substantial improvements in quality assurance are made, their use by businesses to meet environmental goals should be strongly discouraged. Given that offsets
are widely traded as commodities, that demand for offset-based derivatives products is growing, and that fraud may be a widespread problem throughout the marketplace, the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission has a clear role to play in addressing the problem of low quality and policing for illegal activities.
Source: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-cftc-should-raise-standards-and-mitigate-fraud-in-the-carbon-offsets-market/ <https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-cftc-should-raise-stand
ards-and-mitigate-fraud-in-the-carbon-offsets-market/>