Upsetting the Offset - Transnational Institute

Upsetting the Offset
‘international cooperation activities’. Tepco justifies carbon trading by stating
that: ‘Japan is among the most energy-efficient countries in the world.
Compared to other countries, there is little room left for cost-effective domestic
measures. Therefore, TEPCO is actively working to achieve its CO2 reduction
target, by employing the Kyoto Mechanisms to even more efficiently reduce
greenhouse gas emissions while contributing to sustainable development in
developing countries’. In other words, Tepco ensures to Japanese consumers
that they can continue using energy and keeping their production and
consumption levels as usual because reduction of emissions is being achieved
among other places in Chile.
What is meant by the reduction of emissions is the amount of methane
abated in Chile. We can analyze these CDM projects following KP’s two
objectives:
Reduction of Emissions
In line with the KP, one of the CDM’s goals is fulfilled. In fact, the baselines
used in such CDM projects show that without the technique used the methane
would have been released to the atmosphere. However, as these emissions are
caused by an export oriented pig production, what are the real costs involved
here? The fact is that a big part of these emissions are deeply rooted in pig meat
trade and export from Chile to other markets. In addition, and as the business
goes very well for the company, production increases in order to satisfy demand
and so are also emissions. A circle becomes evident here: as the export of pig
meat increases, more methane is produced and more carbon credits can be
generated. However, as we will see below, this process has both environmental
and human dimensions not accounted for in the CDM. And also, a
contradictory effect can be noticed: as mentioned earlier, methane has a higher
GWP than CO2. On the other hand, CO2 lasts much longer in the atmosphere
than methane which has a long-life of 12 years (IPCC). This point is crucial to
understand the politics of methane abatement as a way of facing climate
change. On a broader and global scale, this can even be seen from a cost
effectiveness point of view:
Given the relatively short life-time of the temperature response of methane
reductions and that the target will be met beyond the middle of this century the
shadow price of methane will be relatively low compared to what is found in the
cost-benefit analysis or to its GWP value calculated over 100 years. The case is
different for carbon dioxide since it has an almost irreversible effect on the
temperature. Hence, given a cost-effectiveness approach (with a 2 K target) the
use GWP overvalues the importance of reducing methane in year 2020, and
correspondingly, relatively more economic resources should be devoted to
reduce long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. 35
Sustainable Development
According to the CDM, Agrosuper’s projects should contribute to sustainable
development goals. What the projects say in order to fulfill such a requirement is
for example: ‘The project activity can be stated as a relevant improvement for
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