Are US utilities behind Bolivian carbon offset scam?

Bolivia Carbon Offset Scam

Greenpeace claim to have unearthed evidence that points towards a carbon offset scam involving the Bolivian government and US energy companies.

Carbon offsets are one of the more controversial ways in which governments hope to reduce the level of global GHG emissions. Put simply, carbon offsetting involves a company, government or even and individual, buying offsets from other parties, measured in metric-tons of CO2, in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit.

People basically buy the right to pollute freely by paying someone else to offset their own emissions.

Scam

The Greenpeace report suggests that a Bolivian government carbon offset program, which was aimed at drastically reducing deforestation and carbon emissions, has actually led to an increase in both - and US companies could be behind it.

The Noel Kempff Climate Action Project (NKCAP), established in 1997, involved American Electric Power, BP, and Pacificorp agreeing to buy many millions of dollars worth of carbon offset credits from the Bolivian government.

In exchange, the Bolivian government would halt deforestation for three decades near Noel Kempff National Park (NKNP), significantly reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

However, according to Greenpeace, between 1997 and 2009, NKCAP's emission reductions were estimated to be 55 million metric tons per year, but in reality only "as much as" 5.8 million tons of CO2 were actually offset.

Significant guesswork

What's more, the report shows that project sponsors avoided documenting how much "leakage" occurred, favoring elaborate models which depended on significant guesswork. This investigation shows that leakage from NKCAP could be as high as 42-60 percent.

Greenpeace suggest that logging may have simply moved away from the NKCAP protected area to other nearby sites, therefore negating any possible positive effects of the deal. Furthermore, changes in Bolivian forestry laws mean that forests left standing as a result of the offset may have remained untouched anyway.

However, the scheme has received some support. The Nature Conservancy argues: "The Noel Kempff project serves as an example of how well-designed forest carbon projects can result in real, scientifically measurable and verifiable emissions reductions with important benefits for biodiversity and local communities."

There are also suggestions that the project has so far cut 1,034,107 metric tons of verifiable CO2, while a the same time providing economic opportunities to local communities. Going against a common criticism of offset projects, that local residents are often evicted to enable National Parks to be marketed as a carbon offset.

There is no doubt that carbon offset projects are controversial, allowing companies to buy the right to pollute. The fact that governments can simply shift their polluting away from areas marketed as a carbon offset is also something that raises serious questions.

It remains to be seen whether US companies are indeed involved in a carbon scam with Bolivia, but either way, I for one am not a fan of a project in which so many holes can be punched.

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