How hydropower projects in Himachal sold dubious carbon credits
The article exposes a significant case of greenwashing in India’s hydropower sector, where projects marketed as environmentally friendly cause severe local ecological damage while selling carbon credits to polluters. Despite generating substantial revenue by claiming to offset emissions, these dams have triggered landslides, weakened mountains, and reduced river flows, devastating local communities who received no benefits. This disparity reveals that the "green" label used by international buyers masks the reality of environmental degradation and social neglect at the project sites. Central to this deception is the failure of carbon offset mechanisms to ensure "additionality," meaning the projects would have been built regardless of carbon credit income. Investigations show that developers secured financing and began construction before obtaining approval, proving that the credits did not enable cleaner energy but rather subsidized profitable ventures. Consequently, the credits sold to European companies often fail to represent genuine climate action, allowing fossil fuel firms to claim false sustainability while contributing to systemic inaccuracies in global carbon accounting. This case highlights the broader vulnerabilities in voluntary carbon markets, where private registries have struggled to verify the true impact of large-scale renewable projects. By continuing to honor credits from projects that no longer qualify under stricter standards, the system perpetuates misinformation. It demonstrates how greenwashing allows high-emitting corporations to buy legitimacy, undermining trust in climate solutions and diverting attention from the urgent need for actual emissions reductions rather than compensatory offsets that offer no real environmental benefit.
Source: scroll.inPublished on 2024-07-17