Report calls attention to Colombia cheating carbon credit system

In Colombia, the continued use of fossil fuels is regularly offset by emission reduction projects. Already shrouded in controversy, a report has now outed many of these schemes in having no tangible benefit for the climate.

Colombia ranks among the nations most at risk of economic fallout, extreme weather events, and internal displacement triggered by climate change.

Rife with illegal deforestation throughout its indigenous lands, water shortages in its elevated Andes, and severe flooding in its coastal communities, Colombia has faced constant pressure from within and from foreign governments over the last decade to take climate change seriously.

Pledging last year to reduce the country’s carbon emission levels by 51% before 2030, President Ivan Duque Marquez relinquished his usual money focused rhetoric in favour of green ambitions to protect the region’s ecosystems and promote clean energy production.

Less than a year on, however, concerning reports are bringing this newfound environmental integrity into question. As Greenpeace states, again we may have been susceptible to ‘hot air.’

Colombia’s dubious carbon offsetting

By 2017, some 24 countries had adopted what is known as a carbon tax. Each set at different fees and quotas – subject to how much carbon they emit – the tax is levelled at companies involved in the production or use of fossil fuels.

Back in 2016, Colombia introduced its own levy of $5 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted. However, its government offered a controversial get out which allowed companies to invest in carbon offset projects (or carbon credits) as an alternative.

Including everything from the conservation of biodiversity and indigenous lands, to tree planting and the protection of natural carbon banks, many chose the option of buying carbon credits over paying tax.

Now, five years on, analysis of such offset projects suggests that the carbon credit scheme may never have been fit for purpose in Colombia.

The alarming report

An investigation carried out by the UN backed Carbon Market Watch claims that several large scale forest protection projects in Colombia are dramatically overstating their impact on deforestation.

Warning that millions of carbon credits have likely been generated with no benefit to the climate, Carbon Market Watch states it’s merely scratched the ‘tip of the iceberg’ regarding the sheer scale of the offence.

One fossil fuel company called Primax Colombia SAS purchased as many as 5 million carbon credits since 2016, which Carbon Market Watch claims equates to a $25 million loss beyond its recorded environmental impact. Click here for Primax Colombia SAS’ take on the situation.

Carried out in cahoots with the Latin American Centre for Investigative Journalism, the published findings claim there are 75 similar projects making use of the domestic tax credit system that have yet to be probed.