In this article in the Swedish newspaper @dagens_nyheter , David Kureeba, Officer of Forests and Biodiversity at the environmental organization NAPE in Uganda, talks about an important angle of the already flawed idea of “carbon offsets” - carbon offsets as a new form of colonialism, a “carbon colonialism” or “climate colonialism”.
Kureeba speaks about one specific project as an example of this, where people in Kachung in Uganda have been driven off the land they used to farm for generations, in order to give way for a tree plantation under the flag of “carbon offsets” for the Swedish Energy Agency, Energimyndigheten.
The inadequacies of the “rich” world trying to pay their way out of real climate action (as in, lowering our emissions), by starting “carbon offset”-projects in other parts of the world are many. Not only is it just not possible to buy our way out of the need for cutting our emissions - but also, with the history of the last few centuries in mind, looking at the colored map in the illustration (red - countries where the 20 biggest companies for buying carbon offsets resides, green - countries where the majority of the carbon offset-projects takes place, see second slide) gives a bitter taste in our mouths.
RED: countries with the 20 biggest companies for buying carbon offsets, GREEN: countries where the majority of the carbon offset- projects take place
Greenwashing is bad enough in itself - greenwashing while ruining the lives of people in other places of the world is just unacceptable. And since we, as consumers, will have few tools to really know where our “carbon offset-fees” will go, and since most of us wouldn’t want our money to go towards harmful activities...maybe we should just stop engaging in activities that we feel the need to “compensate” for instead?
This blog post written by Jenny a Swedish & Californian flight free activist. Read more of her posts on instagram @flightfreeusa @pancakesonthethird