Verra, the main guarantee of credibility for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has committed to scrapping its rainforest protection programme and introducing rules that it says it is in the process of developing. A senior Verra figure said this week it was time to move on from the current system.
A nine-month investigation, which also involved the German weekly Die Zeit and the investigative website SourceMaterial, found widespread problems with the system. Analysis of a significant percentage of Verra projects indicated more than 90% of its rainforest offset credits did not represent genuine carbon reductions. Human rights issues were a serious concern in at least one of the offsetting projects co-run by Conservation International, a non-governmental organisation, and the Peruvian government, with evidence people had been forced from their homes.
This story is from the March 11, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the March 11, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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