{"id":45984,"date":"2021-12-15T12:13:48","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T11:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=45984"},"modified":"2021-12-15T12:13:51","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T11:13:51","slug":"eu-commission-plans-carbon-offset-scheme-for-big-polluters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/nature-food\/45984\/eu-commission-plans-carbon-offset-scheme-for-big-polluters\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Commission plans carbon offset scheme for big polluters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Brussels<\/strong> \u2013 The European Commission\u2019s \u2018sustainable carbon cycles\u2019 plan, announced today<\/a>, risks becoming an excuse for big polluters to stall their own climate action, Greenpeace has warned.<\/p>\n\n

The Commission\u2019s plan promises funding and new legislation to create certified removals of carbon from the atmosphere via farmland, forests or expensive machinery to be traded in carbon markets, allowing polluting industries to buy them as offsets, instead of reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero <\/strong>said: \u201cProtecting and restoring forests, and better management of farmed soils to absorb carbon is great, but it mustn\u2019t be used as cover for industrial farming and other sectors to keep polluting. Real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions have to be the priority \u2013 carbon removals can add to cuts, but we can\u2019t let polluters use removals to pretend they\u2019re reaching climate targets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The new plan pledges support to unproven technologies, like carbon capture and storage<\/a>, and suggests combining them with large-scale burning of wood for energy (BECCS \u2013 bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), despite warnings from scientists<\/a>. The plan also leaves the door open for the EU to take part in international offsetting markets, one of the most controversial topics<\/a> of international climate negotiations at COP26 in Glasgow.<\/p>\n\n

Contacts: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director: <\/strong>+32 (0)477 77 70 34, marco.contiero@greenpeace.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU press desk<\/strong>: +32 (0)2 274 1911, pressdesk.eu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n

For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. We do not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties. Greenpeace has over three million supporters, and 26 independent national and regional organisations with offices in more than 55 countries.<\/p>\n\n

EU Transparency Register: 9832909575-41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Commission\u2019s \u2018sustainable carbon cycles\u2019 plan, announced today, risks becoming an excuse for big polluters to stall their own climate action, Greenpeace has warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22,26,28],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-45984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-food","tag-climatechange","tag-farming","tag-forests","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45986,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45984\/revisions\/45986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45984"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=45984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}