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

offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 303Unfortunately, no. The iron is produced by burning charcoal andreleasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and is actually used tomake things like cars, which of course release yet more carbon dioxide.In that case, how can Plantar claim that it deserves carbon credits? It sounds likeit’s an active part of the industrial system that is accelerating climate change.Plantar and its colleagues at the World Bank have tried many lines ofargument. At first, they said that without carbon finance, there wouldbe an ‘accelerated reduction in the plantation forestry base in the stateof Minas Gerais, within the next decade, caused by harvesting of existingforests (now in the last cycle of their rotations) and lack of investmentinto replanting’. 178 In the absence of carbon finance, Plantar andthe Bank insisted, ‘the company would not invest in the replanting ofits forests for the pig iron production, abandoning them after the finalharvest of the existing plantations’. 179 When reminded that CDM rulesdo not allow credit to be provided for ‘avoided deforestation’, the Bankrewrote its design documents to emphasise other justifications.Which were…?First, that Plantar was not avoiding deforestation but rather preventingan otherwise necessary switch in the fuels for its pig iron operationsfrom eucalyptus charcoal to more carbon-intensive coal orcoke.Let me get this straight. This company says it deserves carbon credits for notdoing something?That’s right. Plantar claims that without carbon money, the companywould switch over from using charcoal to using fossil fuel. It’s calledan ‘avoided fuel switch’. Because the carbon dioxide released by thecharcoal is supposedly mostly absorbed by the new trees grown fornew charcoal, less carbon enters the atmosphere than would enter itfrom the burning of coal.But why would Plantar switch over to using coal? Isn’t there enough charcoalto go around?Plantar claims that without extra carbon finance for a 23,100-hectareplantation scheme, the charcoal-fired pig iron industry would face a‘supply bottleneck’. It says current plantations are being depleted andthe lack of forest incentives will render new plantations financiallyunfeasible without World Bank carbon financing. 180 Plantation landwill be ‘converted to pasture or agricultural land’. 181