Academia
As governments turn forests into tradable carbon assets, local residents and indigenous communities are paying the price for a corporate climate shortcut that trades genuine emission cuts for green labels.
A group of people take a walk on May 20, 2022, in the Katingan Mentaya peatland, Southeast Asia’s largest, situated between two rivers of the same names and spanning over 150,000 hectares across the districts of Katingan and East Kotawaringin in Central Kalimantan. (Antara/PT Rimba Makmur Utama)
The emergence of the potential “Godzilla El Nino” serves as a grim reminder that the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat. Extreme weather events that were once considered rare are now occurring more frequently as global temperatures continue to rise.This situation demands serious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of global warming. However, rather than pushing for fundamental changes to the production and consumption patterns that generate massive emissions, many countries are instead relying on market mechanisms as the primary instrument of climate action.
This approach did not emerge suddenly. It is rooted in the global climate governance regime that has evolved since the 1997 adoption of the Kyoto Protocol as the operational instrument of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). One of the Kyoto Protocol’s most significant legacies is the introduction of various market-based, flexible mechanisms, including emissions trading and carbon offsets.
