Even when carbon markets deliver the promised climate action, most of the time the buyer uses the credit for an offset. Recently published ActionAid USA research, Caution Required: Protecting Communities from Carbon Markets, focuses on Kenya, which has the largest and oldest carbon projects in Africa. Of the 317 carbon projects registered with voluntary carbon markets in Kenya, most are small cookstoves or water-filtration projects. Unfortunately, this dismal record in the Global South has not deterred interest in carbon markets or carbon credits. Carbon markets are not climate finance and do not lessen the climate finance obligations of rich countries, responsible for 92 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions.
