Systemic analysis: How ‘low-carbon’ offsets enable fossil fuel expansion while greenwashing corporate power
Original framing: “We reviewed 48 ‘low carbon’ projects and found they were becoming part of the fossil fuel problem” — The Conversation - Global
Peer-reviewed studies show that 85% of CDM projects under Kyoto had ‘no effect’ on emissions, with offsets often leading to increased pollution elsewhere (e.g., Haya et al., 2022). Life-cycle assessments reveal that ‘low-carbon’ projects like biomass energy frequently emit more CO2 than fossil fuels when accounting for land-use change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that reliance on offsets delays actual decarbonization.
The ‘low-carbon’ projects critique reveals a structural paradox: they are not failed experiments but successful mechanisms for fossil fuel capitalism to greenwash its expansion while maintaining profit margins.
This is enabled by a neoliberal climate governance regime that prioritizes financialization over ecological integrity, with carbon accounting serving as the Trojan horse for corporate power. The historical continuity with colonial-era resource extraction—now repackaged as ‘sustainability’—exposes the racialized and extractivist logic underpinning these schemes. Indigenous resistance, from the Standing Rock protests to Amazonian land defenders, offers a radical alternative: a world where land and air are not commodities but sacred commons. The path forward requires dismantling offset markets, centering Indigenous sovereignty, and enforcing direct emissions cuts—lest we mistake the symptom (greenwashing) for the disease (fossil capitalism).