CARBON FOR COMMUNITIES
OVERVIEW
In 1992, governments around the world adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It entered into force in 1994 with over 150 signatories, and it entailed specific commitments by industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. The Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force in February 2005, set slightly more ambitious targets. It aimed for a 5% reduction below 1990 GHG emissions levels by 2012. More important than these numbers, the Kyoto Protocol introduced a ‘framework for market-based management of the global atmosphere.' As such, 2005 marked the birth of a global carbon market.
Both compliance and voluntary carbon markets have subsequently taken off. Although dominated by the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), the compliance market includes the Kyoto Protocol's Joint Implementation (JI) scheme and the New South Wales's Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (GGAS). Parties not bound by specific caps or regulations (e.g. individuals and small businesses) participate in the voluntary market.
An enormous amount of money is changing hands:
- More than US$10 billion in 2005
- More than US$30 billion in 2006
- The market is expected to surpass US$50 billion in emissions trading by 2010 and may reach US$1 trillion by 2025
However, poor people are largely excluded from participating in these transactions. CARE is addressing this injustice by aggressively promoting multiple-benefit projects that simultaneously reduce greenhouse gases, reduce poverty and conserve critical ecosystems. The types of multiple-benefit projects that we are implementing can be divided into two categories:
