Massive greenwash alert: Blue Carbon signs a carbon deal with Kenya. Its parent company signs a US$1.5 billion carbon deal with Zimbabwe
And Blue Carbon signs a deal with First Abu Dhabi Bank
Blue Carbon LLC, a United Arab Emirates company, continues its massive green grab with a new agreement with Kenya. Blue Carbon had already signed carbon deals with Liberia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The deals cover a total area of 24.5 million hectares.
Saskia Ozinga, founder of Fern, a European environmental justice organisation, calls it a “scramble for Africa’s forest carbon”. She adds,
“But these deals risk defrauding the countries, the forest communities, and the climate, and appear to be negotiated by African governments who don’t understand carbon markets or are personally benefitting from the deals.”
Framework of Collaboration signed with Kenya
This week, Blue Carbon signed a Framework of Collaboration with Kenya’s State Department of Environment and Climate Change.
Before the deal was signed, a delegation of official representations from Kenya, including the Deputy Director of Climate Change Mitigation, Augustine Kenduiwo, visited Blue Carbon’s offices in the United Arab Emirates.
A press release states that the deal,
underlined Blue Carbon’s commitment to explore and support Kenya’s Article 6 readiness as per the Paris Agreement, whereby carbon credits are generated in the form of Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) and aligned with national climate targets.
Under the UNFCCC system, carbon credits are called Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes.
The press release gives no further details about the deal except to say that it is “Aimed at reducing emissions from various sectors of the environment such as forest areas . . .”
The press release adds that,
Blue Carbon’s collaboration with the Republic of Kenya is poised to generate vital climate financing thereby advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, promoting sustainable development, and providing significant support for local communities.
What the press release doesn’t say is that the carbon credits generated under the deal between Blue Carbon and Kenya will allow the United Arab Emirates to continue extracting, burning, and selling fossil fuels.
US$1.5 billion carbon deal with Zimbabwe
In August 2023, Blue Carbon signed an agreement with Zimbabwe aimed at developing REDD projects on an area of 7.5 million hectares. That’s almost 20% of the country.
On 2 October 2023, Zimbabwe’s The Herald reported that Blue Carbon’s parent company, Global Carbon Investments, had signed a US$1.5 billion Memorandum of Understanding with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife.
The Herald writes that,
The money is for financing the development and sale of future carbon credits, in the form of Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
The press release about the Kenya deal explains that the US$1.5 billion is “prefinancing for carbon credits in Zimbabwe”.
The deal was signed by Mangaliso Ndlovu, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, and Saboor Karamat of Global Carbon Investments.
Karamat is a UK qualified lawyer who acts as General Counsel for the Maktoum family in the United Arab Emirates. Blue Carbon was established by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum.
A search for Global Carbon Investments on Open Corporates comes up empty.
Workshop in Pakistan
In September 2023, Blue Carbon and Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination held a four-day workshop “to explore how Pakistan’s Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector can generate carbon credits known as Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.”
Agreement with First Abu Dhabi Bank
Also in September 2023, Blue Carbon signed a Memorandum of Agreement with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) “for the supply of high-quality carbon credits”.
In a press release, Blue Carbon explains that,
This partnership will see the establishment of long-term collaboration initiatives between FAB and Blue Carbon that will drive the development and implementation of initiatives related to carbon emission reduction credits, environmental conservation and sustainability. These projects, spearheaded by Blue Carbon, will be fully compliant with the requirements set forth in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, making them eligible for corresponding adjustments in alignment with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
First Abu Dhabi Bank is the largest bank in the United Arab Emirates with assets of US$312 billion. The bank aims to become the UAE’s carbon trading hub, according to a statement from First Abu Dhabi Bank.
First Abu Dhabi Bank recently launched a dedicated carbon trading desk. The bank is in “advanced talks with UAE entities to build a voluntary carbon ecosystem”.
First Abu Dhabi Bank is a founding member of the UAE Carbon Alliance.
REDD-Monitor wrote about the Alliance in September 2023, after it announced that it would buy US$450 million carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative.
The Canary recently published an excellent two part series looking at Blue Carbon’s green grabbing hypocrisy and at the fossil fuel extractivism that lies just below the surface.
It is, of course, no coincidence that all these deals are signed in the run up to COP28, hosted by the United Arab Emirates. The reality is that the UAE Carbon Alliance, Blue Carbon and Global Carbon Investments exist to greenwash business as usual.
That first quote by Saskia Ozinga says it all, almost... The worst part of "defrauding the countries" is that, assuming that they ever get the promised funds, they are now holding a new debt obligation, as if these nations do not already have too much international debt. The whole business of this ever-enlarging corporate green-washing is like Trumpian lying - if you tell people this nonsense enough times, you have both changed the frame of the conversation and caused a learn-by-repetition response. That bends responses into that same frame, further obfuscating a path to the truth. But it seems these corporate schemers "can't handle the truth."