Doubts raised about projects to mitigate climate change in developing countries

Dr Esteve Corbera, a researcher at the UAB's Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and Dr Adrian Martin, of the University of East Anglia (UK) have co-edited a special edition of the journal Environment and Planning A (October 2015), containing a wide-ranging discussion of the implications of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy or soil-use management projects in the Global South. Thousands of these projects have been conducted all over the world during the first phase of the the Kyoto Protocol, and in the context of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (December 2015), this is a good time to reflect on these projects and make an assessment. The Global South comprises all countries not included in Annexe 1 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and mainly consists of the emerging economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the other developing countries.
 
The articles published were led by researchers from the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, and co-developed with their respective counterparts in the countries being studied. Among the main effects on the persons taking part in the projects are positive impacts on incomes and local employment markets, but there is also a lack of training and understanding about the ultimate aim of the projects: mitigating global climate change by exchanging emission rights.
 
For this reason the articles cast doubt on whether the emissions-reduction projects in the Global South really do achieve their aim and they pose the awkward question of whether these projects should be continued given that, on the one hand, they are making it cheaper for Northern companies and governments to reduce their emissions but on the other are having positive economic and social effects locally. In other words, is it environmentally and socially fair or unfair to mitigate emissions outside the countries that pollute the most? And who is ultimately entitled to answer that question and continue to promote these projects or cancel them?