More and more companies are trying to make environmentally harmful behavior more climate-friendly by purchasing so-called CO2 certificates – but a report now questions an associated United Nations platform. The certificates offered there are ineffective and would therefore not protect the climate.
For the purpose of CO2 compensation, the UN operates an internet platform aimed at consumers and businesses in the form of an online store. However, according to research by “Wirtschaftswoche” and the online magazine “Flip”, the effect is negligible.
According to the information, users of the platform can buy emissions for just a few cents per ton of CO2. However, this is only a fraction of the usual costs of a few euros per ton. In doing so, “the public is being cheated,” as Carsten Warnecke of the New Climate Institute criticizes.
Certificates for projects that are planned anyway
The media used a specific example to show how tricks are used here: for example, certificates were sold for the construction of a dam in Brazil – but without this revenue the project would have been realized, therefore no additional emissions are saved, which means that the Compensation for Fighting the Climate Crisis seems almost worthless.
According to independent experts, there are probably significant quantities of such worthless certificates in circulation. For example, climatologist Martin Cames of the Öko-Institut estimates that up to 85 percent of UN activities contribute nothing positive to the climate. “Yet everything bears the UN seal, which I find problematic,” Cames tells Wirtschaftswoche.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
