A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

lessons unlearned 139Still other dump extensions consist of new trees planted to absorbcarbon dioxide 260 or soils where tilling has been halted to allow carbonbuildup, or stretches of ocean salted with iron to stimulate plantgrowth.Gas flaring. Companiesmay soon be able toget carbon credits forusing the gas to generateelectricity instead.And the second type of dump extension?A second type involves various emissions-saving technologies. For example,companies wanting carbon credits can help refit factories inKorea or India to capture or destroy hydroflourocarbons such as HFC-23 or other powerful greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide. Or theycan invest in hydroelectric dams in Guatemala or Brazil that ‘replace’electricity generated by fossil fuels. Or they can set up wind farms togenerate green electricity, or institute efficiency projects that distributeenergy-frugal light bulbs or rearrange traffic signals. Or they can growbiofuel plantations, which are claimed to provide ‘substitutes’ for fossilfuels. Or they can start up a project to feed supplements to Ugandancows to reduce their methane flatulence. 261 They might even try gettingcredits for cleaning up debris left by the Indian Ocean tsunami. 262Another target for carbon finance is projects that take methane from,say, waste dumps in South Africa, coal seams in China, pig farms inChile, 263 or fl aring towers in Nigerian oil fields, and use it as a fuel forgenerating electricity. Many such projects release carbon dioxide, butare said to be relatively ‘good’ for the climate, since releases of unburnedmethane are even worse for the climate than carbon dioxide.But wait a minute. Shouldn’t it just be things like energy effi ciency measuresor solar power – or not building a plant at all – that get carbon money? Aren’tthose things all less carbon-intensive than methane combustion?It doesn’t matter. As long as a project emits less greenhouse gas than‘business as usual’, it’s in the money.But who fi gures out what ‘business as usual’ is?The project proponent’s private consultants.Who gives them the power to decide what is business as usual?The UN does. Private businesses do. Government officials do. Individualswho buy carbon ‘offset’ credits do.Some of these private consultants have also served on intergovernmentalpanels providing technical advice to the UN on what can bedone about climate change and the carbon accounting methods thatshould be used for carbon projects. 264 That further increases their influencewith governments, industry and the UN.