{"id":58966,"date":"2021-08-12T05:59:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T10:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58966"},"modified":"2021-08-12T05:59:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T10:59:36","slug":"how-to-sell-carbon-neutral-fossil-fuel-that-doesnt-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58966","title":{"rendered":"How to Sell \u2018Carbon Neutral\u2019 Fossil Fuel That Doesn\u2019t Exist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"full-width-image-lede-text-above\">\n<div class=\"full-width-image-lede-text-above__abstract\">\n<h3 class=\"full-width-image-lede-text-above__hed\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2021-08-11\/the-fictitious-world-of-carbon-neutral-fossil-fuel?sref=RJ2RlMrh\">How to Sell \u2018Carbon Neutral\u2019 Fossil Fuel That Doesn\u2019t Exist<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"full-width-image-lede-text-above__dek\">\n<p>Energy companies are starting to pitch the idea that planet-warming natural gas can be erased by paying villagers to protect forests. Experts can\u2019t make the math work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure>\n<div id=\"lazy-img-375361043\" class=\"lazy-img full-width-image-lede-text-above__image\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-img__image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iph.sOsobUL8\/v1\/1600x-1.jpg\" alt=\"undefined\" data-native-src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iph.sOsobUL8\/v1\/-1x-1.jpg\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"media-info\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>Volunteers clear\u00a0vegetation that would otherwise stoke wildfires in forests around their village near\u00a0Mbire, Zimbabwe. Their work is funded, in part, by the sale of fossil fuel thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"credit\">Photographer: Cynthia Matonhodze\/Bloomberg<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div data-component-root=\"FeatureBody\">\n<div class=\"body-copy fence-body\">\n<div class=\"thirdparty-embed \">\n<div class=\"thirdparty-embed__container\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.megaphone.fm\/HSW3398553850\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Total had proposed the trade after learning a client had already purchased two carbon-neutral cargos from rivals at Royal Dutch Shell Plc, according to people with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named discussing a private transaction. One of these insiders said that only after getting the go-ahead did the inexperienced team attempt to figure out how to neutralize the emissions contained in a hulking tanker full of liquified natural gas. Their first step was to search the internet for worthy environmental projects that might\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2021-06-02\/carbon-offsets-new-100-billion-market-faces-disputes-over-trading-rules?sref=GBEdnt3o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">offset the pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure-expandable paywall\" data-align=\"right\" data-id=\"375361145\" data-image-size=\"column\" data-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"image figure-expandable-image__ce13d6cb\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open image in viewer\">\n<div id=\"lazy-img-375361145\" class=\"lazy-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-img__image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iLFVDgcLamWs\/v1\/600x-1.jpg\" alt=\"relates to How to Sell \u2018Carbon Neutral\u2019 Fossil Fuel That Doesn\u2019t Exist\" data-native-src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iLFVDgcLamWs\/v1\/-1x-1.jpg\" data-img-type=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"news-figure-caption-text caption\">\u2018This whole bush can be razed to the ground if we don\u2019t do what we\u2019re doing,\u2019 says Kembo Magonyo, one of the volunteers.<\/div>\n<div class=\"news-figure-credit credit\">Photographer: Cynthia Matonhodze\/Bloomberg<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Thousands of miles away, a Zimbabwean volunteer named Kembo Magonyo would spend the spring months clearing stubborn jumbles of branches near the thickly forested border with Mozambique. Wildfires tend to leap between the two countries, laying waste to trees before anyone can respond. \u201cThis whole bush can be razed to the ground if we don\u2019t do what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Magonyo says, hacking away with his machete. His work is organized by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/carbongreenafrica.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a group<\/a>\u00a0partly funded by Total\u2019s carbon-neutral deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In the complicated\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-07-09\/carbon-offset-trading-is-taking-off-before-any-rules-are-set?sref=GBEdnt3o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new math<\/a> of climate solutions, villagers clearing brush in southern Africa can end up redefining networks of global commerce worth billions of dollars. Environmental projects stand as shadow partners to emission-heavy energy trades happening far away.<\/p>\n<div class=\"data-dashboard-inline-container paywall\">\n<div class=\"data-dashboard-inline\">\n<div class=\"data-dashboard-inline__drawer\">\n<div class=\"data-dashboard-inline__body\">\n<div class=\"dvz-data-dashboard\">\n<div class=\"container svelte-4mn4hn\">\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Sell \u2018Carbon Neutral\u2019 Fossil Fuel That Doesn\u2019t Exist Energy companies are starting to pitch the idea that planet-warming natural gas can be erased by paying villagers to protect forests. Experts can\u2019t make the math work. Volunteers clear\u00a0vegetation that would otherwise stoke wildfires in forests around their village near\u00a0Mbire, Zimbabwe. Their work is funded, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6],"tags":[31609,83,31612,333,950,31610,31608,31611],"class_list":["post-58966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-akshat-rathi","tag-bloomberg","tag-carbon-neutral-fossil-fuels","tag-france","tag-fraud","tag-godfrey-marawanyika","tag-stephen-stapczynski","tag-totalenergies-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58967,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58966\/revisions\/58967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}