IP Groups Worldwide Oppose Carbon Offsetting Schemes

India Bourke of the New Statesman reported on Nov. 18, 2021, that indigenous peoples groups worldwide oppose carbon offsetting that started with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and they reiterated the same opposition during the COP26 meet in Glasgow, Scotland.

Photo Insert: The Hoopa Valley Tribe of California feels carbon markets are trying to use their unceded land to allow companies to continue to pollute.

“Planting new forests requires land, as does flooding valleys for new hydropower projects. And those already living and using that land fear that scaled-up ‘land-grabs’ will put the security of their livelihoods and cultures at risk,” Boure wrote.

“These carbon markets are trying to use our unceded land to allow companies to continue to pollute,” says Thomas Joseph of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in California, a delegate at COP26 with the Indigenous Environmental Network.

“Just like the US government has taken land from us and colonized us, now companies are trying to do the same thing: carbon markets are a further act of colonization.”

Chief Ninawa Huni Kui, who speaks on behalf of one of the largest IP groups in Brazil, stressed: “People in Europe need to know that the products they consume that come from Brazil are products of destruction, of murders, of indigenous families that got pushed out from their territory.”

The flow of finance to nature protection could play a major role in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, provided it is set up in a way that respects the rights of local and indigenous peoples and ensures conservation schemes are not an excuse for further emissions, Bourke added.

But human rights must be prioritized in any such agreements, says Chief Ninawa. “A central solution is to allow indigenous territories to self-govern, so we can recuperate the land that was stolen from us: we know how to protect.”

The Glasgow summit did signal that carbon-offsetting schemes will now be subject to an independent body that will answer grievances raised about their impact. Yet this has not assuaged all fears.

“Safeguards have failed in the past and they will continue to fail,” adds the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Thomas Joseph.

“The UNFCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] has no authority or power to protect human rights in nations that are perpetrators of abuse and have always turned a blind eye to indigenous peoples.”

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