The Limits Of Carbon Markets As A Solution To The Climate Crisis
African Sovereign Debt Justice Network (AfSDJN)
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Abstract: This brief critiques carbon markets? effectiveness in resolving climate injustice. Centering on African forest ecosystems, it examines how financial tools like debt-for-nature swaps, carbon credits, and green bonds commodify nature and enable continued emissions in the Global North. Kenya?s Mau Forest is profiled for Indigenous dispossession?the Ogiek community evicted to facilitate carbon credit sales to Middle Eastern investors. The Climate Change (Amendment) Act, 2023 is critiqued for legitimizing offsetting without emissions accountability. Liberia?s carbon-for-debt deals and ACMI?s advisory role reflect privatized carbon governance trends. The brief asserts that these markets replicate terra nullius frameworks, erasing historical emitters? responsibilities and extracting rights from Indigenous Peoples. Recommendations include rejecting offset finance tied to sovereign debt, enforcing FPIC standards, and reframing climate finance around reparations and ecological restoration.