A Feature, Not a Bug

I am completely not shocked that a massive carbon offset program in Australia is a fraud.

This is not a surprise.

As my posts on the Nature Conservancy show this is the default behavior.

Either they are taking credit for vegetation not under threat, or they are misrepresenting the savings involved:

Australia's carbon credit scheme was undermined by damning new research Wednesday, which found a world-leading reforestation project had been an underperforming "catastrophe".

Vast swathes of land across Australia's desert Outback have been earmarked for native forest regeneration, which is meant to offset emissions as new trees suck up carbon.

But researchers have found that across almost 80 percent of these plantations forest growth was either stagnant – or that woodlands were shrinking.………

Australia has set aside almost 42 million hectares (104 million acres) under the scheme, an area larger than the landmass of Japan.

Researchers said it was "one of the world's largest" natural carbon offset projects.

Officials claim that since 2013, the native forest spreading across this land has sucked up more than 27 million tonnes of carbon.

But the peer-reviewed research, which used satellite imagery to chart forest growth, has cast serious doubt on this figure.

………

The peer-reviewed research was published in the Nature Communications journal, Earth & Environment.

Australia has committed to cutting carbon emissions by 43 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, on a path to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Australia's carbon dioxide emissions per person are among the highest in the world at 15.3 tonnes, surpassing US levels, World Bank figures show.

Carbon offsets are a criminogenic activity.

Its structure not only favors fraud, it practically demands fraud.