In 1997, the three energy multinationals American Electric Power (AEP), BP-Amoco (BP), and Paci?corp signed an agreement with the government of Bolivia. The deal involved for these companies to be allocated the carbon offsets generated by keeping trees standing, ‘in return for millions of dollars of investment for the protection of an area of rainforest from logging for 30 years. These offsets could then be bought and sold in carbon trading systems, in order to offset some of the CO2 pollution produced by these power companies.’ This project is known as the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project (NKCAP).

Through its seeming win-win facade, critics have seen the wily scam behind the said project. The project is actually an organized effort for coal and oil companies to cheat the climate through forest offsets. Critics have slammed this project as the forest carbon scam.

This is how the project actually operates: these energy giants ‘are using the forest protection project to try and avoid reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions.’ This carbon scam ‘shows how projected carbon savings are close to 90 percent lower than originally claimed; how overall deforestation rates in Bolivia have actually increased since the project started; and how the promised benefits to local communities have come to nothing.’

The Noel Kempff Climate Action Project is an example of an undertaking that should be avoided, a very apt discussion point in the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference a few days from now.

Via Greenpeace