Climate

AI-generated image

Don't Just Dismiss The Voluntary Carbon Market Because Of Its Imperfections

Commentary
The market for carbon offsets is growing exponentially but remains filled with dodgy projects that do little for the environment. Sceptics say it’s time to do away with the voluntary carbon markets altogether and take real action through carbon taxes and emissions caps. But by focusing on the imperfections of carbon offsets, they are dismissing a viable approach to climate action that should be used alongside a broader transition towards lower carbon emissions. Read more to find out why carbon credits shouldn’t be dismissed just yet and how technology is improving the integrity of the carbon market.
By Shihan Fang
Gene editing

Pandemic Poker? Big Tech’s Gamble on the Molecular Manipulation of Life in the Asia-Pacific Region

Commentary
Even with unprecedented global investment and effort by some of the world’s most expert professional genetic engineers trained in the task of taming SARS-COV2, it is clear that just one virus continues to surprise and outwit humans’ best attempts to control biology and that social divisions are increasing as a consequence. Here we explore what other technologies would-be molecular manipulators are developing as part of their ongoing mission for human mastery.
By ETC Group
ETC infographic 2 crop

Tech, Farming, Biodiversity

Digitalization, genomics, climate geoengineering: A range of new and emerging technologies impact upon farming, food production and biodiversity. Many of them promise productivity growth and better sustainability, and even to address climate change by means of mitigation or increased resilience to it. However, small-scale farming communities often have neither access to – nor a say in the application of – these new technologies, some of which are high-risk, threatening potentially irreversible change to our planet. In a series of essays and commentaries undertaken on the occasion of the Biodiversity Convention COP 2021-22 in Kunming, the ETC Group and others authors from the hbs network in Asia discuss technologies, the imagined futures that underpin them, and their actual and potential impacts on food production, farming communities and biodiversity, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

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