Dear friends and colleagues,
Forgive me if you've already seen this open letter to the California
Air Resources Board. *Please sign it have done research relevant to
REDD+/PES, carbon trading/offsets, tropical forest conservation, etc. and
agree with our message of caution.* We have 50+ signatures so far; hope to
get more by *Nov. 11.* We'll present it at a pubic ARB session on Nov. 16.
Links to letter & sign-on are below. Here's the story:
The ARB may soon approve yet another way for the state's biggest
greenhouse-gas emitters to buy their way out of their legal obligations by
purchasing dubious offsets, this time in the global South. ARB's proposed
new Tropical Forest Standard would link California's cap-and-trade program
to subnational states in the forested tropics. This is a bad idea for
reasons we have tried to summarize in the letter. It would set a terrible
international precedent as California officials continue to promote the
state's climate policy as a model for the world.
Until now the ARB has mainly taken its cues from environmental economists,
its own technical staff, big green NGOs, carefully vetted officials and
indigenous spokespeople from Brazil and Mexico, and consultants with
personal and career interests in carbon trading and forest conservation
financed by offsets. The ARB board and staff seem unaware of the actual
record and problems of REDD+ PES, and when told about this, respond that
their proposed "jurisdictional REDD" would surmount such problems. Our
letter voices widespread concerns about forest carbon offset programs
shared by so many geographers and other researchers who are closer to
understanding how these projects are working on the ground.
We three authors are approaching this from different perspectives but we
think the case against this TFS initiative is very strong. We are not
condemning REDD+, etc., nor offsets in general in the letter. We are
stressing the ways that the TFS could implicate the state in harmful
practices, would fail to achieve any net environmental gain, and fails to
meet California's legislated requirements.
Please sign if you agree, and circulate the letter to other scholars with
academic credentials who have worked on REDD/PES, carbon
trading/offsetting, tropical forests/conservation/development, etc. We will
be adding more citations: suggestions appreciated.
** You can add your name to the letter at THIS LINK
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIUh1PGTF-rdZXynXXARsiWH0m1aYsoZt31o4W2iqYfvXrMQ/viewform>
:
Here
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pbwBoZDg26BaWgP28jcuCC316CSTFDq1/view?usp=sharing>
is
a link to the letter.
Here
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1plIObM7Ig3plgHYdlciQjPpLjGEEWYmA/view?usp=sharing>
is information about the Tropical Forest Standard and how to submit
individual letters to the ARB. Do let us know if you have questions or
comments.
Kathy
--
Kathleen McAfee
Professor, International Relations
San Francisco State University
[email protected]
*Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced
wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the
machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. *Stephen
Hawking
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