Blue Carbon LLC signed carbon deals covering 24.5 million hectares. Then the company disappeared
Blue Carbon’s mega-carbon trading deals were always greenwash.
In 2023, during the run-up to COP28, a United Arab Emirates company called Blue Carbon LLC signed a series of Memoranda of Understanding with countries around the world. Countries involved included Tanzania, Zambia, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Dominica, and Papua New Guinea. The deals covered a total area of 24.5 million hectares.
The company was run by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum a member of Dubai’s royal family. The company was formed in October 2022. Al Maktoum had no previous experience in carbon trading or nature conservation projects.
In July 2023, REDD-Monitor wrote that Blue Carbon’s aim was to greenwash the United Arab Emirates’ massive fossil fuel carbon footprint and to influence the Article 6 carbon trade negotiations at COP28.
In November 2023, 40 social and environmental organisation put out a statement addressed to the UNFCCC and members of the Article 6.4 supervisory body titled, “Blue Carbon and the New Scramble for Africa’s Forests”.
Samuele Landi
The story took a bizarre twist with the involvement of Samuele Landi as an advisor to Blue Carbon. Landi had been convicted for bankruptcy fraud in Italy. He fled to Dubai.
In 2020, Landi was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
When The Guardian asked Blue Carbon about Landi’s role in the company, the company replied that
“In light of your inquiries concerning Mr Landi’s legal history, Blue Carbon asserts that comments on his past are beyond the scope of our organisation’s purview. For any inquiries pertaining to Mr Landi’s personal legal matters, we direct you to seek a direct response from him.”
Landi lived on a barge about 45 kilometres from the coast between Iran and United Arab Emirates. He had plans to build a “seasteading” city for 5,000 people to the northeast of Madagascar.
When REDD-Monitor wrote about Landi’s unusual living arrangements and his dubious history, he responded at length. His comments were light on facts and heavy on ad hominem attacks.
In February 2024, tragedy hit. Landi was found dead following a huge storm in the Persian Gulf.
Silence after COP28
While Blue Carbon had been extremely active in the run-up to COP28, after the event it fell almost completely silent. In March 2024, Blue Carbon put out a request for proposals for “Carbon Project Development Services”.
REDD-Monitor sent some questions to Josiane Sadaka, CEO of Blue Carbon asking for clarification of the company’s planned operations and whether any of the MoUs would be made public. She did not reply.
In August 2025, I noticed that Blue Carbon’s website had disappeared. According to the Internet Archive, the website went offline some time between 16 May and 13 July 2025. There is no mention of Blue Carbon on Al Maktoum’s company website, Inmā Emirates Holdings.
Last week, Agence France-Presse published an in-depth article about what has happened with several of the deals that Blue Carbon signed in 2023. The article is written by AFP’s Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh and Code for Africa’s Kunle Adebajo.
The deals have all “stalled” and Blue Carbon “appears to have fallen silent” they report.
Blue Carbon’s deals have “lapsed”
When asked about the status of the Blue Carbon deal, Liberia’s National Climate Change Steering Committee, Elijah Whapoe, told AFP that,
“It was stopped. As we speak, there is no attempt to my knowledge, anything, about trying to resuscitate it.”
That is a good thing. Blue Carbon’s deal covered around 1 million hectares of Liberia’s forests. That’s 15% of the country’s forests. The deal was for 30 years and involved no consultation with local communities.
Blue Carbon’s deal in Zimbabwe was even bigger, covering 7.5 million hectares, or about 20% of the country. Washington Zhakata, Zimbabwe’s director for climate change told AFP that the deal was only an expression of interest. Zhakata said that,
“Blue Carbon has yet to submit its project idea note. Nonetheless, the company has already applied for an account on the Zimbabwe Carbon Registry.”
In Zambia, nothing came of the deal with Blue Carbon. Douty Chibamba, Zambia’s permanent secretary at the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment told AFP that “The MOU lapsed without any action.”
Officials in Kenya and Tanzania did not respond when AFP requested more information.
Papua New Guinea’s Climate Change Authority told AFP that the agreement with Blue Carbon had “not progressed at all”.
In July 2023, Blue Carbon signed an MoU with AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) a Singapore-based company. Under the agreement, Blue Carbon would use ACX as its “preferred platform to sell its carbon credits and settle transactions”.
An ACX spokesperson told AFP that,
“Our MOU with the Dubai company ‘Blue Carbon’, signed in 2023, has since lapsed. There has been no active engagement between the parties.”
Greenwash
Code for Africa carried out a digital investigation into Blue Carbon. They found no corporate registration details and no sign of Blue Carbon on the UNFCCC, Verra, or Gold Standard carbon registries. Despite claiming that its carbon credits would be compliant with Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, Blue Carbon has not filed notification of intent as required under Article 6.4.
AFP attempted to contact Blue Carbon in various different ways but received no reply. An AFP journalist visited the Blue Carbon office address in Dubai. Here’s what happened:
A guard initially said Blue Carbon was based there. But later he said there was no Blue Carbon office, and advised the reporter needed an appointment. There was no Blue Carbon sign visible in the lobby.
Saskia Ozinga, the found of Fern summed up the problem with Blue Carbon to AFP:
“Blue Carbon was clearly aimed to greenwash. It was a bizarre idea from many different perspectives, which would have never worked for the climate, for forests and for people.”