Young climate advocates against carbon markets at COP29

Negotiators at the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, have adopted a controversial provision on carbon trading that critics say will enable rich countries and companies to simply pay to continue emitting. The adoption of Article 6 from the Paris Agreement will outline ways that countries and companies can trade emissions on a carbon market, which the World Bank Group, responsible for delivering climate finance to developing countries, calls a “game changer.” The U.N. Trade and Development agency similarly describes the carbon market as a “powerful tool.” However, many civil society organizations are strongly opposed to carbon markets, citing concerns that communities in areas where carbon credits are generated to “offset” the carbon emitted elsewhere are often not consulted on carbon projects and rarely benefit. “We don’t want carbon credits at all because they do not help the community or the women of Asia Pacific,” Ranjana Giri, a young climate advocate from Nepal, told Mongabay at the Baku summit, COP29. Giri represents the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, a leading network of feminist organizations and individual activists in the Asia-Pacific region. Giri said carbon markets don’t benefit women or local communities because the profits mainly go to agribusiness companies and their executives. Carolina Mutari, a youth activist from Kenya, also slammed the concept. “I totally disagree with carbon markets. They are false solutions right from the start,” Mutari, attending COP29 as a representative of a group of young people from across Africa, told Mongabay. “The reason…This article was originally published on Mongabay