Environment

What carbon trade means for the layperson

Malawi is now officially trading in carbon—an arrangement in which big polluters in the developed world are said to be reducing their emissions by funding projects that benefit poor nations who despite polluting less, bear the brunt of the developed countries’ pollution.

Government has just given a letter of approval to CarbonSoft Corporation, a London-based carbon credit aggregator, to start distributing solar lamps in Malawi’s rural and semi-urban households.

“This [distribution of lamps] will enable them to stop burning kerosene, a highly potent greenhouse gas, for light, preventing CO2 emissions. CarbonSoft estimates that over the course of the six-year project, approximately 49 000 tonnes of CO2 will be saved, thereby generating one carbon credit per tonne,” said CarbonSoft, in a statement published on prweb.com.

The solar light programme is at the leading edge of a worldwide movement to reduce the burning of kerosene, key to the objectives of the Rio+20 conference on Sustainable Development, and the International Year of Sustainable Energy For All in 2012.

Shamiso Najira, chief environmental officer in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Management, said the approval was given upon the Malawi Government liking the project concept of CarbonSoft.

She said the role of government will be to promote the project and that it would cover the whole country, a move which effectively means that CarbonSoft is aiming at eliminating kerosene lamps in Malawi.

The Collins English Dictionary defines a carbon credit as “a certificate showing that a government or company has paid to have a certain amount of carbon dioxide removed from the environment.”

What this means, however, is that a company or government that buys the credits maintains its pollution and uses the carbon credits to justify it.

Some have argued that the carbon trading idea allows rich nations to pollute more and not decrease their emissions because they hide under the veil of buying carbon credits from a broker who is reducing carbon emissions elsewhere.

William Chadza, executive director of the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (Cepa), says the issue has two faces.

“On one hand, it is welcome as it will lead to increased access to sustainable energy; address the challenges of our narrow Energy Policy; provide opportunities for financial gains from carbon markets; and increase Malawi’s efforts towards climate change mitigation.

“Conversely, there is growing evidence that most of the carbon trading related interventions have the West as the major beneficiary as these interventions will only lead to perpetuating greenhouse gas emissions.

“As more of these carbon trading related interventions get underway, the more levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the West remain the same. It is like providing permits to pollute. In addition, recent figures on prices of carbon per ton seem unattractive to warrant significant livelihood changes which the proponents seem to be portraying.” says Chadza

He says there is need to do a good cost-benefit analysis on the issue.

Meanwhile, the rich nations will keep emitting carbon and using their huge profits to buy carbon credits.

It is the likes of Stanley Ngwira, a teacher at Thunduti Secondary School at Uliwa in Karonga, that will keep suffering.

Early this year rains took a break for almost three weeks when Ngwira’s maize needed it most, the result was almost no yield at all. Ngwira is banking his hopes on the salary he gets as a teacher and even then, his year looks bleak.

For Ngwira, the solar lamp he is likely to receive from CarbonSoft will just be used at night but the gruesome effects of erratic weather resulting from climate change may haunt him for a long time.

What carbon trade means for the layperson

BRIGHT MHANGO

Malawi is now officially trading in carbon—an arrangement in which big polluters in the developed world are said to be reducing their emissions by funding projects that benefit poor nations who despite polluting less, bear the brunt of the developed countries’ pollution.

Government has just given a letter of approval to CarbonSoft Corporation, a London-based carbon credit aggregator, to start distributing solar lamps in Malawi’s rural and semi-urban households.

“This [distribution of lamps] will enable them to stop burning kerosene, a highly potent greenhouse gas, for light, preventing CO2 emissions. CarbonSoft estimates that over the course of the six-year project, approximately 49 000 tonnes of CO2 will be saved, thereby generating one carbon credit per tonne,” said CarbonSoft, in a statement published on prweb.com.

The solar light programme is at the leading edge of a worldwide movement to reduce the burning of kerosene, key to the objectives of the Rio+20 conference on Sustainable Development, and the International Year of Sustainable Energy For All in 2012.

Shamiso Najira, chief environmental officer in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Management, said the approval was given upon the Malawi Government liking the project concept of CarbonSoft.

She said the role of government will be to promote the project and that it would cover the whole country, a move which effectively means that CarbonSoft is aiming at eliminating kerosene lamps in Malawi.

The Collins English Dictionary defines a carbon credit as “a certificate showing that a government or company has paid to have a certain amount of carbon dioxide removed from the environment.”

What this means, however, is that a company or government that buys the credits maintains its pollution and uses the carbon credits to justify it.

Some have argued that the carbon trading idea allows rich nations to pollute more and not decrease their emissions because they hide under the veil of buying carbon credits from a broker who is reducing carbon emissions elsewhere.

William Chadza, executive director of the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (Cepa), says the issue has two faces.

“On one hand, it is welcome as it will lead to increased access to sustainable energy; address the challenges of our narrow Energy Policy; provide opportunities for financial gains from carbon markets; and increase Malawi’s efforts towards climate change mitigation.

“Conversely, there is growing evidence that most of the carbon trading related interventions have the West as the major beneficiary as these interventions will only lead to perpetuating greenhouse gas emissions.

“As more of these carbon trading related interventions get underway, the more levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the West remain the same. It is like providing permits to pollute. In addition, recent figures on prices of carbon per ton seem unattractive to warrant significant livelihood changes which the proponents seem to be portraying.” says Chadza

He says there is need to do a good cost-benefit analysis on the issue.

Meanwhile, the rich nations will keep emitting carbon and using their huge profits to buy carbon credits.

It is the likes of Stanley Ngwira, a teacher at Thunduti Secondary School at Uliwa in Karonga, that will keep suffering.

Early this year rains took a break for almost three weeks when Ngwira’s maize needed it most, the result was almost no yield at all. Ngwira is banking his hopes on the salary he gets as a teacher and even then, his year looks bleak.

For Ngwira, the solar lamp he is likely to receive from CarbonSoft will just be used at night but the gruesome effects of erratic weather resulting from climate change may haunt him for a long time.

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