A Washington Post investigation reveals that many carbon credit projects in the Brazilian Amazon illegally use protected public lands and fail to share profits with local communities.
Terrence McCoy, Júlia Ledur and Marina Dias report for The Washington Post.
In short:
- Many carbon credit ventures in the Amazon overlap with publicly protected lands, generating millions in profits illegally.
- Companies buying these credits include Netflix, Delta and Air France, with projects covering an area six times the size of Maryland.
- Brazilian authorities are starting to investigate, uncovering fraud and improper land claims.
Key quote:
“The system is very gameable. And the victim is the planet and all of humanity who suffers because we’re not reducing emissions, but get to pretend we are.”
— Joseph Romm, climate researcher at the University of Pennsylvania
Why this matters:
The misuse of protected lands for carbon credits undermines efforts to combat climate change and defrauds local communities. This corruption in carbon credit markets could hinder global efforts to reduce carbon emissions effectively.
