The Government will be buying millions of tonnes of carbon credits in order to meet its Nationally Determined Contribution , the goal set by each country under the Paris Agreement.
Under both national and international law, affected communities should be consulted before a project starts, he said.
“It is only when that final gavel lands and all our asks are in the document – up until that point, nothing is certain,” he said.
In international legal agreements, a seemingly minor revision of words can have huge real-world consequences, said climate law student and conference delegate Phoebe Nikolaou.
In an earlier draft released last week, one rule proposed that – for a particular type of carbon trade – all carbon-cutting projects “will protect” human and Indigenous rights.
She is concerned countries are only paying lip service to human and Indigenous rights.