Delegates closed out this year’s United Nations climate conference on Sunday after agonizing debates over the right way to deliver on the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. In addition to approving a new framework for international climate aid, nearly 200 countries approved guidelines meant to make it cheaper and easier for them to reach their emissions reduction targets by trading in international carbon markets — in essence, allowing one country to pay another to make emissions cuts on its behalf. While some delegates applauded these developments, many experts and environmental groups are unhappy with the final agreement.
Among the flaws observers identified were a lack of transparency in the way countries count and report carbon credits and the absence of concrete consequences when agreed-upon guidelines aren’t followed. The final guidelines also failed to provide much specificity about the types of projects allowed to create carbon credits.
Carbon Market Watch, a European watchdog and research group, said in a statement that the agreements reached at the end o... Read more
