Companies use ”hot air” forestry offsets to avoid taxes in Colombia

Carbon Market Watch defends its investigation into Colombian forestry projects, arguing that these projects produce 'hot air' credits that allow fossil fuel companies to avoid paying national carbon taxes. The organization refutes Verra's claims that its methodology was flawed, asserting that multiple assessment methods—including national reference levels and Ministry of Environment estimates—confirm the overestimation of emission reductions. It further contends that Verra's claims regarding community benefits lack transparency and that current auditing processes have failed to ensure environmental integrity.

• Two large-scale forestry projects in Colombia are producing more carbon credits than the actual emission reductions they achieve, which fossil fuel companies use to avoid paying the national carbon tax.
• Carbon Market Watch used four distinct methods to verify that project baselines were inflated: comparing them to the national Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL), analyzing historical deforestation in the Vichada department, performing a qualitative assessment of the reference area, and using official estimates from the Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
• The Mataven project's baseline is significantly higher than government estimates; the Ministry's estimate is approximately ten times lower than the baseline the project actually used.
• There is a lack of transparency regarding the financial benefits claimed by Verra for indigenous communities, and the organization argues that social benefits cannot justify the issuance of environmentally unsound 'hot air' credits.
• Carbon Market Watch asserts that third-party auditors (Validation and Verification Bodies) failed to perform adequate assessments, allowing the issuance of inflated credits despite existing rules.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2021). Companies use ”hot air” forestry offsets to avoid taxes in Colombia. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CMWs-response-to-Verra-on-Colombia-1.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Companies use ”hot air” forestry offsets to avoid taxes in Colombia. 2021. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CMWs-response-to-Verra-on-Colombia-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Companies use ”hot air” forestry offsets to avoid taxes in Colombia |date=June 2021 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CMWs-response-to-Verra-on-Colombia-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{carbonmarketwatch2021companies, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Companies use ”hot air” forestry offsets to avoid taxes in Colombia}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CMWs-response-to-Verra-on-Colombia-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }