Dubai’s Blue Carbon has now secured land in Africa roughly enquivalent to the area of the UK, ready to sell on as carbon credits to allow it to keep pumping oil. This week CNN noticed. Expect to hear all about this at COP28.
While not connected to Blue Carbon at this point as far as we know, this is the kind of thing I’m concerned is going to happen a whole lot more: the Ogiek people in Kenya’s Mau forest are being driven from their homes and their villages burned to make way for carbon offset schemes.
Having written about SUV ads this week, it’s interested to see that the Advertising Standards Authority has banned an SUV ad for the first time, for being socially and environmentally irresponsible. Toyota are not impressed.
Derek Walker, Future Generations commissioner for the Welsh government, writes about how the country’s pioneering future generations act is being applied in practical terms, and the difference it’s making.
With Twitter/X an increasingly diseased place to be, I’m experimenting with BlueSky and you can find me here. Drop me an email (jeremy@earthboundventures.org) if you’d like an invite, as I have a handful to pass on.
Fairphone launched a customer referral scheme this week. So if you’ve been meaning to get one, use this link and you’ll get £50 off.
Highlights from this week
The climate crisis and the 1%
The carbon emissions of the richest 1% of humanity are the same as the poorest five billion people. That’s according to the latest report from Oxfam into inequality and climate change. Climate Equality: A planet for the 99% updates their statistics and outlines again how the climate crisis is caused by the richest and suffered…
E-bikes are better for the climate than EVs
Electric bikes and scooters are making a bigger difference to global emissions than electric cars. That might seem counter-intuitive to readers in the UK, where there is lots of attention on EVs and the infrastructure for them. It would be less of a surprise to people in countries where scooters and motorbikes play a bigger…
Badvertising, by Andrew Simms & Leo Murray
The world has begrudgingly come around to the idea that climate change is happening. What we do about it remains a point of debate, but you’d think we could all agree on one thing. While we work out the best solutions, shouldn’t we stop making it worse? Apparently not, since fossil fuel subsidies remain. We’re…
The Earthbound Report 