S1E93: Forest carbon offsets - scam or climate saviour?

Our expert guest offers his evaluation of a recent investigation
by British media outlet The Guardian.


Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits
Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from
biodiversity conservation to climate change.


Forests are one of nature’s ways of soaking up large amounts of
carbon dioxide (CO2), helping apply the brakes to climate change.
This explains why halting deforestation and replanting forests
makes sense. Investors who do this, want to earn a return for
their efforts by selling tradeable “offsets” representing a tonne
of CO2 removed, or avoided from being emitted, such as protecting
a forest under threat from clearing. 


Forest carbon offsets have become big business, helping offset
buyers to reduce their carbon footprint and meet their climate
targets, in addition to other carbon-cutting steps that they must
take. But rainforest carbon offsets are controversial because of
concerns over the quality of the credits and projects and whether
the forests will really remain standing for the long term. And do
these projects really lead to big reductions in deforestation?


The issue has come to the fore after a recent investigation by
The Guardian, which concluded that rainforest carbon offsets
issued by Verra, the world's main certification body for offsets,
were mostly worthless. Though widely panned as being flawed, the
conclusions by The Guardian have highlighted the need for further
tightening of the standards and scrutiny of forest carbon
offsets. 


In this episode, ST's climate editor David Fogarty hosts
Professor Koh Lian Pin - director of the National University of
Singapore’s (NUS) Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions - who
has been working to boost the integrity of nature-based carbon
offset projects. He looks at the pros and cons of rainforest
carbon offsets. 


Highlights of conversation (click/tap above):


1:19 What are forest carbon projects?


4:56 How much carbon are we talking about?


7:15 Why have these projects been so controversial?


12:15  “The good must continually get better” in carbon
accounting and monitoring


17:08 “The highest quality carbon offset is actually the one we
don’t need.”


Produced by: David Fogarty (dfogarty@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis and
Hadyu Rahim


Edited by: Hadyu Rahim


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Special edition series:


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