Session Description
Reports of human rights violations and adverse social impacts linked to carbon offset projects continue to be uncovered, exposing critical weaknesses in how social and human rights risks and benefits are identified, assessed, and managed within the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). While the VCM incorporates and continues to update and improve frameworks, standards, and safeguards intended to deliver social co-benefits and prevent harm, recent evidence suggests these mechanisms are not being applied with sufficient rigor to protect affected communities — particularly in tropical and subtropical regions where forestry, agriculture and habitat conservation projects overlap with subsistence livelihoods, cultural and indigenous rights. Reflecting the conference theme, "Looking Back on the Future of Impact Assessment," this session will be structured as a workshop asking what carbon project developers and practitioners can learn from both failures and successes in impact assessment and community engagement across other sectors — including hard-won lessons from the resource sector — to adaptively shift course and avoid predictable mistakes. It will draw on the experiences of selected panelists. The facilitator will begin by providing an analysis of the various standards followed by a brief overview of the current state of human rights and social impact assessments in Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) projects and possible causes of failures in existing safeguards. The content gathered from the workshop will be used to inform guidance for practitioners and developers aimed at improving the application of social and human rights safeguards in carbon projects.
Session Summary
What can carbon project developers and practitioners learn from both failures and successes in impact assessment across other sectors to adaptively shift course and avoid predictable mistakes. Carbon offset projects continue to face growing scrutiny over social harms, exposing gaps in VCM safeguards.
Additional Information
As the international impact assessment community plays a critical role in a rapidly decarbonising world, this session will address questions about the quality and of SIA in carbon markets. We will reflect on the experiences of practitioners in the resource sector and how lessons learned can be applied to carbon offset projects, particularly in the case of FPIC and benefit sharing. The session will be of interest to practitioners working in SIA, human rights, climate change, biodiversity, and development finance.
Session Chair
Rita Sully
University of the Sunshine Coast
Australia
Session Co-chair
Katharine Gotto-Walton
Canada