Global Policy Roundup

Carbon Removal Newsroom

We’ve been covering a lot of US state and federal CDR policy in the last few episodes. Today we’re taking a much-needed international trip and discussing some critical stories happening across the globe.

Zimbabwe’s government has announced new regulations on voluntary carbon offset trading to prevent greenwashing and ensure that local communities benefit. Carbon credit schemes in Zimbabwe have been unregulated. The new policy mandates that all carbon projects register with the program, ensuring that a percentage of the revenue goes directly to local communities.

Deforestation rates in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have fallen by 33.6% during the first six months of 2023 under the new administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This contrasts sharply with the record-breaking deforestation rates in 2022 under former president Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted mining and farming in protected areas.

The UK government has announced comprehensive changes to its Emissions Trading Scheme: a program designed to decarbonize the country eventually. The ETS will now include more sectors, set new emissions limits for the power sector, energy-intensive industries, and aviation, and incorporate carbon removal technologies into the ETS. CDR solutions, like direct air capture, BECCs, and nature-based removals, will now be traded in the ETS program.

Today I’m with our regular policy panel of Holly Buck Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo and the author of Ending Fossil Fuels, and Wil Burns the Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.

On This Show

Holly Jean Buck

Wil Burns

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

New Zimbabwe Regulations

Amazon Deforestation Decrease

Cerrado Deforestation Increase

“Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Territories” paper

Petrobras Increasing Oil Output

UK ETS Changes

Drax BECCS projects

Our Episode on California’s SB 308

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