👀 Are 7Gt of fake removals about to enter the system?

🎙️ Sounds alarming? It is! And don’t take it from me, but from climate policy expert Danny Cullenward on our latest Carbon Removal Scoop.

🌲 Earlier this year, Danny resigned from GHG Protocol’s Independent Standards Board (ISB) as a result of a conflict about its upcoming Forestry Protocol. Might sound technical, but trust me, it could affect all of us.

⚖️ The GHG Protocol is the global rulebook for corporate carbon accounting, and many governments' corporate disclosure laws are built on it.

📄 His resignation letter (see comments) didn’t spare any punches and led to significant media coverage, given the seriousness of the issue.

🥼 A very simplified summary: the approach backed by the scientist on the technical working group at the GHG Protocol (= activity-based accounting) is at risk of being overruled by an industry led approach (= Managed Land Proxy Plus) which would de facto count natural forest growth as removal.

⚠️ This could in turn lead to up to 7Gt (!!!) of “fake” removals landing on corporate climate accounting ledgers every year. If true, the repercussions would be catastrophic for anyone developing genuine removals of any kind. It would also make corporate emissions accounting kind of pointless.

🎧 Surprisingly, despite the media coverage, I was not familiar with this issue prior to hearing Danny mention it at a recent conference. I assume most of you aren’t either. As such, I highly, highly recommend you take 30 minutes out of your day today to get up to speed:

🔹 Podcast: https://lnkd.in/ews9yeTf

🔹 Youtube: https://lnkd.in/eNarSb5m

👇 I know this is a controversial topic. And there will be many of you who have strong feelings about it. I welcome you to share your perspective in the comments and at the Scoop we are open to having someone present the opposing side as well.

🌍 Personally, I was pretty shocked to hear about these developments and read the accompanying news coverage. I respect Danny highly, which gives these allegations a lot of credibility.

🙋🏻‍♀️ Were you aware of this?

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