DOUBLE JEOPARDY

The document argues that 'net zero' pledges act as a 'smokescreen' for corporations to continue fossil fuel extraction and industrial agriculture. It specifically critiques nature-based solutions (NbS) and soil carbon sequestration, claiming these mechanisms facilitate land grabbing, data harvesting by agribusiness and IT firms, and the co-option of agroecology. The report contends that carbon offsetting relies on a false 'equivalence' between volatile biomass carbon and long-term fossil carbon, ultimately benefiting corporate power over small-scale food producers.

• Net zero pledges are characterized as a corporate strategy to maintain business as usual and profits while continuing to drive climate breakdown, rural poverty, and inequality, rather than achieving actual zero emissions.
• The industrial food system is a major driver of emissions, accounting for 44-57% of food system emissions, while only 24% of its produced food reaches people; in contrast, small-scale farmers feed 70% of the global population using only 25% of resources.
• Nature-based solutions and carbon offsetting are linked to land grabbing and dispossession, with examples including a carbon offset deal in Sabah, Malaysia, that could have seen a Singapore-based company earn US$80 billion, and Shell's 1.5-degree pathway requiring a forest the size of Brazil.
• The 'equivalence' claim used in carbon offsetting—that one tonne of CO2 is equal regardless of source—is flawed because it ignores the difference between volatile, temporary biomass storage and long-term underground fossil deposits.
• Soil carbon farming is being used by agribusiness and IT corporations (such as Bayer, Cargill, Yara, Microsoft, and IBM) to harvest data from small-scale farmers via mobile apps and remote verification, potentially locking them into corporate contracts for up to two decades.
• Agroecology is being co-opted by the 'nature-based solutions' framework, which the report argues is incompatible with agroecology because NbS strengthens the corporate industrial food system and views nature as 'capital' rather than a human right.

APA

Kill, J., Chandrasekaran, K., Drago, M., & Race, M. (2022). DOUBLE JEOPARDY. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/foei-double-jeopardy-executive-summary-EN.pdf

Chicago

Kill, Jutta, Kirtana Chandrasekaran, Martin Drago, and Madeleine Race. DOUBLE JEOPARDY. Friends of the Earth International, 2022. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/foei-double-jeopardy-executive-summary-EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kill |first1=Jutta |last2=Chandrasekaran |first2=Kirtana |last3=Drago |first3=Martin |last4=Race |first4=Madeleine |title=DOUBLE JEOPARDY |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=November 2022 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/foei-double-jeopardy-executive-summary-EN.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kill2022double, author = {Kill, Jutta and Chandrasekaran, Kirtana and Drago, Martin and Race, Madeleine}, title = {{DOUBLE JEOPARDY}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/foei-double-jeopardy-executive-summary-EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }