- Carbon credits have long been a part of the climate change discourse and so the universe of different types of carbon credits is fairly well understood. What about biodiversity credits, at the heart of an initiative announced by Emmanuel Macron at COP27?
- Broadly speaking, two cases can be distinguished: on the one hand, regulatory or voluntary biodiversity offset systems with offsets, based on the “no net loss” principle associated with the avoid-reduce-compensate (ARC) sequence. On the other hand, credits not intended for offsetting, modeled on voluntary carbon credits, which are, above all, financing vehicles for actions in favor of biodiversity.
- Alain Karsenty, an economist at CIRAD, explores their interest and limits in relation to systems already in place or proposed elsewhere.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
A proposal for “positive conservation partnerships” is made to countries hosting such reserves, based on “political and financial contracts” that would enable them to guarantee their conservation. To this end, “innovative financial mechanisms” will be explored and it is planned that a “high-level group will be tasked with making recommendations on the creation of a biodiversity credit market”.
While the universe of different types of carbon credits is fairly well known, the situation is less clear with regard to “biodiversity credits”. Broadly speaking, two cases can be distinguished: on the one hand, regulatory or voluntary biodiversity offset systems with offsets, based on the “no net loss” principle associated with the avoid-reduce-compensate (ARC) sequence. On the other hand, credits not intended for offsetting, modelled on voluntary carbon credits, which are, above all, financing vehicles for actions in favor of biodiversity.
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