Can Carbon Markets Help Stop Deforestation in the Amazon?
I spent the morning at a meeting in midtown on the subject of the nascent carbon markets in Brazil. They’re tiny at the moment, and they’re likely to remain tiny — unless and until the US implements a cap-and-trade system with two key features: international offsets, and the acceptance of deforestation avoidance as a genuine reduction of carbon emissions. Both these features are highly controversial. Looked at through European eyes, international offsets defeat the purpose of a cap-and-trade system, which is to cap domestic carbon emissions and make them expensive. If you allow domestic companies to pay for international rather than domestic emissions reductions, domestic carbon emissions become higher than they otherwise would be, and the cost of carbon credits lower. On the other hand, global warming is, well, global — which means that it makes sense on a global level to reduce carbon emssions in the first case where it’s easiest and cheapest to do so. Offsets are a good way of doi
