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Press Release: False Climate Solutions Drive Land Grabs in Africa

Thursday, December 8, 2011

NEWS EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 am EDT DEC. 6, 2011                                      

MEDIA CONTACTS: Anuradha Mittal, (510) 469-5228, [email protected]

 

False Climate Solutions Drive Land Grabs in Africa

Durban Should Call for an End to Land Grabbing


An unsavory but major element to the land grab phenomenon in Africa is the "green investment" stance of agrofuel and agroforestry producers. Even though the need to end dependence on fossil fuels is compelling, this idea as well as carbon trade and carbon credits are being used as a "green cover" to accelerate land acquisitions in Africa.

Market mechanisms related to carbon trade and carbon credits create a confusing web that allows for some of the world's dirtiest corporations to continue polluting as long as they are planting trees somewhere else.

The latest Land Deal Brief from the Oakland Institute and Polaris Institute, The Role of False Climate Solutions exposes how agrofuel production and the development of carbon credit generating projects are profitable initiatives for corporations, investment funds, and even governments, while they actually deepen the ongoing hunger crisis on the continent.

At the end of the day, Africans are losing their food-producing land and water resources to crops being used for agrofuels in other countries. The unwelcome surprise is that the production of these crops, with industrial fertilizers, equipment and processing, will do more harm heating the planet than provide climate solutions.

Download the Brief at http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/land-deal-brief-role-false-climate-change-solutions

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The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank whose mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic and environmental issues.