Verra suspended the Pacajai REDD project in September 2023. Companies have retired more than 2 million carbon credits from the project since then Including Mastercard, BlackRock, and Philip Morris.

🚨 In September 2023, Verra suspended the Pacajai REDD project in Brazil.

💻 Since then, more than 2 million carbon credits from the Pacajai project were retired.

🔥 The project as unlikely to have any positive impact in reducing net carbon emissions.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/verra-susp...

Thanks Forrest!

This is a really great interview about our recent work. Thanks @reddmonitor.bsky.social for covering us!

“The dynamics of social-ecological systems pose a fundamental challenge to attributing changes in carbon stocks to actions taken by carbon offset projects.” Interview with Dr. Pushpendra Rana “The challenge is not simply poor measurement, weak data, or the absence of improved methodologies.”

I interviewed Pushpendra Rana about his recent paper "Why carbon offsets may fail in complex systems: A causal inference perspective".
The paper, written with @forrestf.bsky.social and Amit Sharma argues that the problems with carbon offsets cannot be fixed.
reddmonitor.substack.com/p/the-dynami...

Good point - the 20% cut is in international climate finance.

How the UK government suppressed, then ignored, its own report on how ecosystem collapse threatens national security Instead of increasing support to protect ecosystems, the UK government is cutting climate finance.

In October 2025, the UK government blocked publication of a "global ecosystem assessment" report.

The report was released in January 2026 following a freedom of information request.

The government has ignored the report - and cut climate finance by 20%.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/how-the-uk...

REDD myth no. 5: “Carbon offsets reduce emissions” The reality is that to achieve real emissions reductions, carbon offsetting has to end.

“& here’s the reality: Carbon credits allow companies to claim to be reducing their emissions while continuing to pollute. The reductions are on paper, while the emissions go into the atmosphere.”

“Carbon offsets reduce emissions” - @reddmonitor.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/reddmoni...

Article 6 carbon credits would allow the EU to emit 50% more greenhouse gas emissions in 2040 According to a policy brief by the NewClimate Institute.

A recent report by @newclimate.bsky.social takes a look at the impact of using Article 6 carbon credits in the EU's emissions trading system.

The answer? 50% more greenhouse gas emissions in 2040, compared to a scenario without the use of carbon credits.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/article-6-...

“Entire communities now live in fear and despair.” How the Tanzanian government profits from tourism while cracking down on Indigenous Peoples in Ruaha National Park The World Bank’s failure to address breaches of its policies is “beyond shameful”.

The @oaklandinstitute.org reports that Tanzanian government is cracking down on Indigenous Peoples in the name of conservation.

Luxury safari tourism is booming.

While communities live in "fear and despair".

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/entire-com...

Malawi has signed a 40-year contract with Portuguese engineering firm Mota-Engil to generate carbon credits from 550,000 hectares of the country’s forests Trafigura will market the carbon credits.

If people want to convince me that land based carbon markets have potential, please no more projects like this one, in which only 5% of the money from the sale goes to the local communities... reddmonitor.substack.com/p/malawi-has...

The Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary REDD project in Cambodia is threatened by mining operations and a hydropower dam Excellent reporting from Mongabay exposes the threats to wildlife, ecosystems, and communities.

Another REDD project in Cambodia that is threatened by a hydropower dam.

And a series of mining operations that are already underway.

My post is based on great reporting by Cory Hobbs and Eung Sea for @mongabay.com.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/the-lompha...

Portuguese carbon deal ‘locks’ Malawian forests for decades A sweeping agreement to market carbon credits from 14 forest reserves could generate more than $1.5 billion but critics warn the legal framework remains unfinished

My post is based on great reporting by Collins Mtika in the Mail & Guardian:

mg.co.za/africa/2026-...

Malawi has signed a 40-year contract with Portuguese engineering firm Mota-Engil to generate carbon credits from 550,000 hectares of the country’s forests Trafigura will market the carbon credits.

🇲🇼 A 40-year carbon contract in Malawi, covering almost 6% of Malawi's land area.

🚨 With Mota-Engil, a Portuguese engineering firm. Trafigura will sell the carbon credits.

👀 Only 5% will go to local communities.

💲 75% will go to Mota-Engil and Trafigura.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/malawi-has...

Nike’s non-additional carbon credits from 2006 have found a new life. In ACR’s buffer pool Old carbon credits never die.

“All this should mean that Nike’s emissions reductions are basically worthless as carbon credits.”

Nike’s non-additional carbon credits from 2006 have found a new life. In ACR’s buffer pool - @reddmonitor.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/reddmoni...

African Agriculture Holdings Inc.: Oil companies, agribusiness, carbon credits, land grabs, water grabs, and tax havens aplenty Alan Kessler, Frank Timis, and Koch Inc. More red flags than a golf course.

African Agriculture Holdings Inc: Oil companies, agribusiness, carbon credits, land grabs, water grabs, & tax havens aplenty - @reddmonitor.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/reddmoni...

New research shows that social-ecological complexity creates “high levels of uncertainty” and makes it “very difficult” to attribute changes in carbon storage to carbon offset projects Social-ecological complexity “makes any carbon additionality estimation fragile”.

A recent paper by Pushpendra Rana, Ph.D., @forrestf.bsky.social, and Amit Sharma is titled "Why carbon offsets may fail in complex systems: A causal inference perspective."

Or, why carbon offsets cannot be fixed.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/new-resear...

Here's my post on REDD-Monitor about this paper:

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/new-resear...

The carbon land grab: A debate between GRAIN and the Land Matrix We need better land governance, better standards, and more transparency says the Land Matrix. We need to “put an end to offsetting as a false solution to the climate crisis — urgently” says GRAIN.

My take on a very interesting discussion on @mongabay.com, between @grain.org and @landmatrix.bsky.social about the carbon land grab.

Featuring the TERAKA smallholder tree planting project in Madagascar, run by a French company called iTeraka.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/the-carbon...

Carbon Elsewhere | Fadingcultures Carbon Elsewhere explores how carbon offsetting shifts climate responsibility onto vulnerable communities, revealing the hidden human cost of climate markets.

And here's a link to Corcoran's article - which is well worth a read:

www.fadingcultures.org/carbonelsewh...

Carbon colonialism: The Makira REDD project in Madagascar “The forest remained. The cost was absorbed within the community.”

My latest takes a look at the Makira REDD project in Madagascar, based on an excellent recent article by Tom Corcoran titled "Carbon Elsewhere".

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/carbon-col...

How the UNHCR is using refugees in Uganda and Rwanda to generate carbon credits “One of the most cynical instances of a corporate greenwashing agenda that has done little to address climate change.”

And in REDD-Monitor:

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/how-the-un...

Corporations Are Using Carbon Credits to Exploit Refugees The UN is putting refugees to work in poorly paid green jobs to generate carbon credits for billion-dollar firms. It’s one of the most cynical instances of a corporate greenwashing agenda that has don...

This just out in @jacobinmag.bsky.social.

The mobilisation of refugee labour for carbon credits as maladaptive practice - Nicholas Beuret, Matilda Fitzmaurice, David Harvie, 2025 The Refugee Environmental Protection (REP) Fund is a programme designed to turn refugees and their labour into a source of carbon credits for global carbon mark...

Glad to see this out, co-authored with @nicholasbeuret.bsky.social and @davidharvie.bsky.social ! Huge thanks to the editors at Race & Class for their support and enthusiasm for the article.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

How the UNHCR is using refugees in Uganda and Rwanda to generate carbon credits “One of the most cynical instances of a corporate greenwashing agenda that has done little to address climate change.”

The UNHCR is using refugees in Uganda and Rwanda to generate carbon credits.

My latest, based on writing by @nicholasbeuret.bsky.social, @matildaf.bsky.social, and @davidharvie.bsky.social.

Big Polluters will get cheap carbon credits and keep polluting.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/how-the-un...

Thanks! I've written a handful of posts about NRT's Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project - collected here:

reddmonitor.substack.com/t/northern-k...

Biodiversity offsets and credits: “ecological impacts, land dispossession, loss of livelihoods and systematic violations of individual and collective rights of the affected communities” A neoliberal market that commodifies nature and delays action on the loss of biodiversity globally. What’s not to like?

Biodiversity offsets & credits: “ecological impacts, land dispossession, loss of livelihoods & systematic violations of individual & collective rights of the affected communities” - @reddmonitor.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/reddmoni...

Communities in Zimbabwe received nothing from carbon credit sales in C-Quest’s cookstove projects A new report by Swedwatch and Green Governance Africa exposes “missing benefit sharing and poor community engagement”.

A new report by Swedwatch shows that Ken Newcombe's C-Quest wasn't just selling millions of fake carbon credits.

In Zimbabwe, benefit sharing was "missing" and the community engagement was "poor".

Oh, and the stoves tended to fall to bits.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/communitie...

REDDisms: February 2026 An occasional series of the things people say about carbon trading, the climate crisis, and REDD.

“We conclude that social-ecological complexity fundamentally undermines the reliability of causal attribution in offset projects and considerably limits their ability to meaningfully contribute to mitigating climate change.”

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/reddisms-f...

Indigenous Peoples threatened with violence, livestock theft, and evictions from Mukogodo Forest, Kenya Statement and letter from the East Africa Indigenous Women-Led Assembly.

Statement from the East Africa Indigenous Women-Led Assembly (EAIWA) about plans to evict the Indigenous Yaaku from the Mukogodo Forest ahead of a government security operation.

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/indigenous...

KOKO Networks’ cookstove carbon credits in Kenya were “largely hot air” “They would have taken everything that Kenya is entitled to.”

KOKO Networks' bioethanol cookstove programme in Kenya collapsed at the beginning of this month.

It turns out that KOKO was cooking the books about how many carbon credits its cooking stoves generated.

Another example of "pervasive over-crediting".

reddmonitor.substack.com/p/koko-netwo...