Takeaways on Emerging Land Corruption Risks in Carbon Markets

Speakers: Lindsay Otis Nilles, Expert on Global Carbon Markets, Carbon Market Watch, Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Executive Director, Green Governance Zimbabwe Trust, Tiffanie Chan, Policy Analyst, LSE Grantham Research Institute. Moderator: Rukshana Nanayakkara, Global Policy and Advocacy Expert at the International Land Coalition.

• The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) is largely an unregulated space with numerous buyers and sellers. The VCM is vulnerable to corruption via harmful incentives (all incentives are designed to maximise issuance - and therefore revenue - rather than impact, and the two are not always aligned) , lack of adequate anti-corruption safeguards and consultation, lack of transparency from intermediaries or on distribution of earnings, lack of whistleblowing or grievance mechanisms

• Solutions include: more global civil society coordination on setting up initiatives aimed at better protection of indigenous peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs) in the VCM space, targeted on-the-ground legal and technical aid for IPs and LCs, increased community capacity building initiatives on VCM, increased transparency and accessibility of all project design documents (PDDs), grievance repository, etc., e.g. publicly accessible online documents translated in all relevant languages, more clarity and guidance outlining Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC), more investigations on how IPs and LCs land (and other) rights are being violated to increase awareness.

• It is crucial to identify corruption and poor integrity behaviours that arise after a decision has been made to take action to mitigate climate change or adapt to its impacts. The risks divert key resources away from the pursuit of genuine progress. More climate action is needed, but with high integrity, via: growing awareness of the risks that corruption and poor integrity pose, leveraging existing legal frameworks to address some of these risks, developing new specific legislation and guidance.

• Recommendations derived from the Zimbabwe case study include: promoting rights based approach to climate interventions, establishing a regional land and carbon investment agreement, partnering with more established and credible registries, place communities as the center of land and carbon projects, review land tenure laws in Zimbabwe. This should be coupled with measures to avoid corruption: a clear investment framework, communities empowered to be equal partners in carbon projects, institutionalised carbon regulations, transparency and accountability framework.

The full recording of the presentation from the 7 March Land Corruption and Climate Finance Working Groups meeting is available here: