 "carbon emission, carbon tax, climate change, pollution")
A push to fix carbon markets is gaining momentum as climate envoys at the COP28 conference in Dubai look for ways to meet green finance pledges and keep the goals of the Paris Agreement alive.
The aim is to restore investors’ trust and strengthen a mechanism which could channel cash to developing countries that need billions of dollars to pay for their energy transition and adapt to climate change.
With cheap loans and grants in short supply, especially at a time of higher interest rates, allowing firms in richer countries to pay for emissions reductions in the developing world to partly offset their own pollution is an attractive way of increasing financial flows. But voluntary offset mechanisms have been tainted by concerns that some of their projects do little or nothing to slow global warming.
“I have become a firm believer in the power of carbon markets to drive ambition and action,” John Kerry, US climate negotiator, told a Monday meeting held under the patronage of the United Arab Emirates, the host of COP28. The talks are expected to endorse carbon credit guidelines drafted by experts last month.
The concept of trading carbon credits across borders to accelerate the green transition is not new, nor are challenges to its transparency and impact.
