Podcast “important today”
The UN & the dirty trade in CO2 certificates
“What is now the result at the end of the research is that the UN is selling ineffective climate certificates and there are probably vast quantities of them in circulation,” says Benedikt Dietsch, editor of the research network “Flip” on trading in CO2 certificates.
© Oliver Berg / DPA
Exchange CO2 for a sustainable project in the Brazilian jungle – but trading in CO2 certificates is not that clean and the UN in particular plays a central role.
You can now offset every flight or purchase of clothes. The bad conscience is reduced and the earth benefits from it, because somewhere a sustainable project is created. This is exactly how companies that produce a lot of CO2 in their production work. It doesn’t matter where the CO2 is emitted and where it is offset, because there is only one earth. Benedikt Dietsch is an editor at the research network Flip and has researched this trade in certificates. In the 457th edition of the “Today important” podcast, he talks about how widespread this trade is: “There is climate-neutral meat, you can offset your flight and entire companies advertise with it: we are climate-neutral. There’s always this CO2 offset behind it, they simply buy certificates and states also use this instrument.” There is a wide range of offsetting projects, from planting trees to a special feed that is formulated in such a way that the cows emit less methane. There are no limits for your creativity. The main thing is that it is sustainable.
UN trade in certificates
The United Nations play a major role in trading in certificates, they have significantly shaped and built the system. Benedikt Dietsch found out even more: “The UN operates an online shop where people like you and me, but also companies, can offset their emissions for a few cents per tonne of CO2 – with other providers it’s several euros. ” That’s not a problem if you stick to the guidelines: “There is a golden rule of compensation and it says: The climate project must be additional, it can only be done because of these CO2 certificates, because people like you and I spend money there. They argue that we can only build this dam if we get money from the UN for it, otherwise we cannot build it at all and only then will it help the climate,” said Dietsch in an interview with “Today Important”. -Host Michel Abdollahi.
Worthless Certificates
Together with colleagues from the “WirtschaftsWoche”, Benjamin Dietsch researched that the United Nations of all things sells worthless certificates and the company in question even confirmed it: “In the end, the company admitted that they would have built the dam one way or the other. The impact is stark, which means that every certificate sold by this project is ineffective, doesn’t help the climate and it’s not an isolated case.” According to Dietsch, it is particularly frightening that the United Nations has a good image and that most people initially trust this organization per se.
CO2 reduction
Photo gallery Climeworks – this is how the CO2 sucker works
So CO2 certificates are not always automatically appropriate compensation. So the simplest thing would be to save CO2 directly or to do more research into which projects the money from the compensation is going to.
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