What Are Carbon Offset Markets Selling? Not Solutions to Amazon Destruction | Amazon Watch

After the dust settled at the United Nations Climate Conference last November, one of the most notable outcomes was the ratification of Article 6 of the Paris Climate Accords.

It is expected that these rules will guide the development of voluntary carbon markets as well, and the private sector has come prepared: over 5,000 companies in the United Nations’ Race to Zero initiative have made commitments to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

However, that hasn’t stopped some of the world’s largest corporate polluters like JBS, Amazon, Google, and more from depending on questionable offset schemes to meet their climate targets.

As Amazon Watch previously outlined in our 2021 brief “The Amazon Rainforest-Sized Loophole in Net Zero”, Indigenous land rights in the Amazon have been repeatedly violated in the name of spurious “net zero” commitments that rely on carbon offsets.

Most recently, we voiced our opposition to the Science-Based Targets Initiative’s emissions targets, along with movement allies such as the Indigenous Environmental Network, Friends of the Earth, Family Farm Defenders, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Amazon Watch continues to demand, alongside our partners in the Amazon, that governments, financial institutions, and companies direct funding for climate and forest protection directly to Indigenous peoples who seek it, allowing them to lead with Indigenous solutions that protect forests and help fight climate change.

As we continue to oppose false solutions like carbon offsets, we ask that you lend your voice in support of Indigenous-led solutions like the 80×2025 campaign, a call to permanently protect 80% of the Amazon rainforest by 2025.

During his first 100 days in office, Ecuador’s new president, Guillermo Lasso, made it clear that his government’s economic policy will be based on extractivism.

Drug traffickers in the region have shown a willingness to destroy the rainforest and kill anyone in the name of profit.

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