REDDisms: June 2026
This is the sixth in REDD-Monitor’s occasional series of REDDisms. Each post consists of ten quotations, nine of which are recent and one of which comes from my collection of REDDisms dating back to 2009.
“The President still needs to learn the [moratorium] concept better.”
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Indonesian REDD+ Task Force, February 2011 (one month after the moratorium should have started)
“The basic idea was that we could never win an election on getting certain things because we were in such a small minority. But maybe you could actually unilaterally change the world without having to constantly convince people and beg people and plead with people who are never going to agree with you through technological means. And this is where I think technology is this incredible alternative to politics.”
Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, October 2010
“Additionality is, in itself, questionable as a scientific concept. At a fundamental level, offsetting as a practice substantiated through the concept of additionality can never be established as ‘scientific fact’, as it is always established through counterfactual and hypothetical reasoning. Thus, the carbon accounting that the VCC relies on is opened up to negotiation and subjective judgement by partisan auditors and stakeholders.”
Nicholas Beuret (University of Essex), Matilda Fitzmaurice (Lancaster University), and David Harvie, December 2025
“I have another concern, really. Carbon credits, they just, they seem like a bit of a scam.
“And I don’t want to be crude, but they seem like a scam — because would we not be better off spending the money on actual projects on our own island here that can store carbon, or can better improve the environment? As opposed to trying to buy pieces of paper to say, Oh, we’re the best child in the class.”
Albert Dolan, Irish member of parliament, May 2026
“There are a lot of carbon cowboys, like I would call them, who are promising the world to both governments and to local communities but who rarely deliver.”
Lee White, former environment minister of Gabon, May 2026
“Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help fill GHG data gaps, but may also amplify uncertainty and reduce transparency if not carefully validated, a webinar heard on Tuesday.”
Stewart Mior, Carbon Pulse, May 2026
“Leading carbon credit registry Verra has announced a major, multi-year partnership with tech giants ServiceNow and Docusign to overhaul its customer service and contract infrastructure and integrate AI.”
Violet George, Carbon Herald, June 2026
“The Bank’s priority is reducing GHG emissions from physical operations. Carbon credits are not intended to be used to meet the Bank’s 2030 and 2035 interim milestones and have not been used to evidence progress against the 2040 decarbonisation trajectory.”
Bank of England, June 2026
“The total global flow of finance to nature reached an estimated US$220 billion in 2023, of which public finance through domestic government expenditure, official development assistance and debt-for-nature swaps accounted for US$197 billion. By contrast, private finance for nature amounted to just US$23.4 billion, of which the compliance and voluntary carbon markets contributed approximately US$0.9 billion and US$0.4 billion, respectively.”
Lian Pin Koh, National University of Singapore, June 2026.
“Musk got this money from piggy backing on other people’s success, busting trade unions, moving to low tax states, selling carbon credits from Tesla to highly polluting companies and getting government contracts for SpaceX. He is a grifter, a narcissist, a crypto fascist and a hypocrite. He advocates for outright race war in Britain. In short – he is a perfect representative of late stage capitalism.”
Simon Hannah, Anti*Capitalist Resistance, June 2026