Carbon Green Investments to withdraw the Kariba REDD project from Verra’s registry

How did Verra allow the project to remain on its registry for so long?

The Kariba REDD project in Zimbabwe is one of the world’s biggest carbon offset projects. It is also one of the most controversial. A series of investigations in 2023 revealed serious problems with the project, including a huge overestimate of the number of carbon credits generated by the project.

In an extensive investigation in the New Yorker, journalist Heidi Blake exposed the fact that the project developer, Carbon Green Investments, which is registered in the tax haven of Guernsey, could not account for the money it had received.

Steve Wentzel, the CEO of Carbon Green Investments, told Blake that there was no paper trail for where the money went after it had been paid into a bank account in Guernsey. Wentzel devised an untraceable way of moving the money from Guernsey to get around the fact that Zimbabwe is sanctioned by Guernsey.

“It was illegal,” Wentzel told Blake.

On 17 October 2023, following the publication of Blake’s article, Verra suspended the Kariba REDD project and started an investigation into the project. The project remains suspended more than seven months later.

A few days after Verra suspended the project, carbon consulting firm South Pole pulled out the Kariba REDD project.

Carbon Green Investments: “Reputational damage”

On 30 May 2024, Carbon Green Investments announced that it is withdrawing the Kariba REDD project and the Chirisa REDD project from Verra’s registry. The Chirisa REDD project is still “under valuation” on Verra’s registry.

In its press release, Carbon Green Investments states that the decision to withdraw from the Verra registry, “comes after extensive deliberations and a detailed review of the Projects’ engagement over the past seven months”.

Carbon Green Investments lists several issues that led to the decision to transfer the projects:

Engagement and Cooperation: CGI has faced considerable challenges, resulting in extended periods of uncertainty that have affected the projects' beneficiaries, staff, and business operations.

Communication Delays: Persistent delays in addressing inquiries and providing necessary access to information have significantly hindered CGI’s business and project management capabilities.

Account Access and Transparency: Without access to necessary data, coupled with unexplained modifications, have raised serious concerns about transparency and operational integrity.

Project Impact: These administrative challenges have caused further reputational damage and financial losses for all beneficiaries, further compelling CGI to act and place the best interests of the communities and stakeholders first.

Carbon Green Investments claims that, “Both projects are now in the process of finalizing their registration application with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) program and are scheduled for imminent revalidation and verification.” But the press release does not state under which carbon standard the projects are to be validated and verified.

Verra’s duplicity

Verra responded with a statement from Joel Finkelstein, Senior Director, Media and Advocacy at the company:

The Kariba REDD+ Project represents an unprecedented situation in every sense, from the size of the project to a history going back more than a decade. In response, we are conducting a detailed review involving jurisdictions as varied as Guernsey and Zimbabwe. We have engaged, in the most timely way possible, in a good-faith effort with a publicly reported and self-professed bad actor. We will continue to review this matter in compliance with our program rules and requirements.

Finkelstein, who previously worked for Climate Advisers, makes an extraordinarily duplicitous comment about Carbon Green Investments’ announcement to withdraw from Verra’s registry:

Let me be clear: our motivation is not to facilitate any attempt to make a clean getaway, leaving others holding the bag. Rather, Verra will continue to focus on the environmental and social integrity expected by the thousands of high-credibility projects around the world. If the outcome of today is that Verra is known as an organization of integrity that takes the necessary time to review projects comprehensively and deals aggressively with any bad behavior, then: good.

Even by Verra’s standards, this is shocking. The reality is that the Kariba REDD project is just one more in a very long list of Verra registered REDD projects that have little or no credibility.

Verra and its auditors rubber stamped the massive overestimate of carbon offsets from the Kariba REDD project for more than a decade. One of the auditors was South Pole Carbon Asset Management Ltd. This is a blatant conflict of interest. Before South Pole pulled out, the Kariba REDD project had been South Pole’s biggest generator of carbon credits. In 2022, the project accounted for 10% of South Pole’s revenue.

Verra made no attempt to investigate whether the money from sales of carbon offsets was actually reaching the communities living in the project area. Spoiler alert: Most of the money did not reach the communities.

And Verra failed to investigate the reports of violent anti-poaching operations associated with the Kariba REDD project. These operations were clear to see in a 2017 documentary film called “Trophy” and reported on in July 2023 by Die Zeit.

Neither did Verra uncover the fact that safari hunting was taking place within the Kariba REDD project area.