Today, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry announced the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), a carbon offset plan that would allow developing countries to sell carbon offset credits — generated by power-sector emissions reductions — to corporations. Kerry’s team has billed this program as a power-sector version of the LEAF Coalition, a public-private offset program aimed at protecting forests. Previous Amazon Watch analysis of the LEAF Coalition identifies its potential for corporate greenwash and severe threats to Indigenous rights, and Indigenous leaders recently expressed their frustration with LEAF’s lack of benefit sharing or rights protections.
Though details on the ETA program are sparse, reporting indicates that the Bezos Earth Fund and Rockefeller Foundation are providing seed money; Bank of America, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Standard Chartered Bank voiced interest in “informing the ETA’s development;” and fossil fuel companies are not allowed to participate in the program—though apparently the banks financing them can.
Roshan Krishnan, Climate Finance Campaigner at Amazon Watch issued the following statement about the ETA, based on currently-reported information:
“The LEAF Coalition is already failing forests and Indigenous peoples, and this attempt to export its unaccountable, unjust model to the power sector is yet another iteration of the same old story: climate finance that should be delivered no-strings-attached to Indigenous communities and Global South nations is being made contingent on handing out free pollution passes to rapacious corporate actors.
“The carbon offset model does not effectively reduce carbon emissions nor protect forests, and carbon markets rarely prove capable of providing adequate compensation to Indigenous peoples and local communities. Meanwhile, Indigenous peoples in the Amazon and across the world are left playing catch-up trying to defend their rights and squeeze whatever meager financial benefits might come from these programs.
“If John Kerry and the U.S. government truly cared about stopping climate change, protecting forests, promoting renewable energy, and advancing Indigenous rights, they would be advocating for direct, unconditional climate finance for Indigenous peoples. Instead, the U.S. government is contributing delay, deception, and false solutions.”
