Bilateral agreements become “flimsy” when countries lack clarity on meeting their own climate goals while selling carbon offsets, says a city-state official. The republic has struggled to buy eligible credits from its two partners nations.
As declining oil output increases reliance on on foreign supply, the region’s oil import bill could exceed US$200 billion by 2050, posing major economic and energy security risks without a faster renewables shift, says the global energy authority.
The term “common but differentiated responsibilities” will both underlie and haunt talks for climate financing for developing nations, and squabbles over who should do what to cut emissions faster. Misgivings have risen over past years.
To avoid carbon credit pitfalls, the nascent market's pioneers are keen to rule out offsetting and secondary market trading, while letting Indigenous peoples and local communities take the lead. But NGOs call the financing mechanism a “false solution to a false problem”.