UN officials confirm the findings by the Stockholm Environment Institute that around 600m tonnes of carbon were wrongly emitted as a result, under the UNFCCC’s Joint Implementation (JI) scheme.
- An estimated 80% of JI projects were of low environmental quality, according to the paper which was published today in Nature Climate Change
- Russia and Ukraine were the two biggest beneficiaries of the JI system, which allowed them to trade emissions reductions units (ERUs) ‘proving’ that carbon cuts had been made
- But under the scheme’s ‘Track 1’ – which covered around 97% of projects – states only needed to verify reductions between themselves, without any UNFCCC oversight.
Background:
JI is one of the three carbon offsetting schemes accredited by the Kyoto protocol – along with emissions trading and the clean development mechanism. It allowed some 872m ERUs to be issued by ex-Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries, accounting for around a third of UN-accredited emissions allowances.
News Item compiled by Apoorv Kumar Chaudhary
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