REDD projects often involve fencing in land for conservation in rainforest nations. There have long been problems with conservation projects across the developing world. With REDD, the focus on counting carbon sequestered in trees and soil overrides complex questions of livelihood, land tenure and rights for local people.

Climate policy is in the REDD as Durban climate negotiations conclude. Australia is pushing for decisions to establish forest carbon offsets for trade in the carbon market. However REDD offsets do not address the drivers of deforestation, says Friends of the Earth International. Government negotiators will conclude UN proceedings in Durban today, including decisions on how to finance projects under the mechanism known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). According to a new report released by Friends of the Earth International, Indonesia’s large-scale REDD project is failing to deliver …

EU carbon price collapse demonstrates carbon markets are no climate solution The overnight collapse of the European carbon price demonstrates the many problems associated with Australia linking our carbon price to the European scheme according to Friends of the Earth Australia. The EU carbon price collapsed to around AU$3.20 per tonne before rebounding slight to AU$4 per tonne after the EU Parliament last night voted against the ‘backloading proposal’ to postpone the auction of 900 million gigatonnes of the Phase III allowances from 2013-2015 until 2016-2020.  ‘Backloading’ was a short-term fix designed to …

In 2012, barely anyone even pretends to believe in the negotiation process any more. Obviously this is a part of a wider crisis of multilateralism (hello, imminent collapse of the EU!) But the environment and sustainability talks have been particularly embarrassing for their advocates, with year after year of rising carbon pollution and deals that even the most compromised NGOs can’t get enthusiastic about.

Media Release 29 August 2012 MR – FoE condemns dropping of carbon price floor Yesterday’s announcement by the government to cut the floor price for carbon represents another significant watering down of the environmental and democratic credibility of the scheme according to Friends of the Earth Australia, a leading environmental justice organisation. “Combet’s announcement represents a major cave in to the interests of polluting industries which have been calling for drastic cuts to the carbon tax,” said Gareth Bryant from Friends of the Earth Sydney. “The purpose of dropping the floor price is to …

Download this article as a PDF: A Short History of Carbon Trading There have always been various options on the table to solve climate change – regulating oil and coal companies, massive government investment in renewable energy, supporting the re-localisation of community transport and food production, to name just a few.  So why has climate change – what economist Nicholas Stern called “the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”[i] – come to be seen as a problem to be solved by free markets?  In order to answer this question, we …

The project of Honduran President Facussé´s palm oil company Dinant involves capturing methane from the palm oil mill for ‘re-use’ to power the mill. The project facilitates the expansion of the palm oil industry, contributes to deforestation in sensitive tropical regions, and promotes the production of palm oil for export over food for local consumption.