Presbyterian Hunger Program partner Social Action in Nigeria recently published a report Up in Smoke: Gas Flaring, Communities and Carbon Trading in Nigeria.
As nations attempt to address the growing challenge of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, impoverished communities in countries like Nigeria stand to lose out.
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 established an international system for trading carbon credits in which big polluters stand to profit greatly while underreporting real emissions. The report argues that the 2015 Paris Agreement risks replicating the same system.
The report demonstrates how international markets for carbon credits ignore the calls for environmental justice by communities that have historically been burdened with the harsh consequences of pollution.