Carbon offsetting is being increasingly discredited as a means to address carbon emissions, and growing attention is being directed to the human rights impacts.
A major investigation by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has exposed serious and systemic sexual abuse of women at the Kasigau carbon offset project in Kenya. SOMO and KHRC have published a dossier of evidence based on the testimonies of 31 current and former employees and members of the local community.
The offset project is run by the US-based company Wildlife Works. The carbon-offsetting project is used by Netflix, Shell and other large companies.
The following are excerpts from an article by Maria Hengeveld that was published on November 6th, 2023 on the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)’s website.
- Wildlife Works and its backers have promoted Kasigau in glowing terms, touting its credentials on, amongst other things, women’s empowerment.
- Some of the women SOMO interviewed had reported the sexual abuse to Wildlife Works. No known action was taken.
- [SOMO’s] investigation shows how sexual harassment and abuse were well-known in Kasigau. SOMO received accounts dating back a decade or more.
- Social and environmental auditors repeatedly assessed the project. None of the audit firms reported finding any sexual abuse or, indeed, any serious problem at all.
- Verra, the organisation that oversees standards in carbon offsetting, has responded publicly to the allegations of sexual harassment and abuse at Kasigau. Verra says it has put the project and any further credit issuances on hold until it completes an investigation.
- While it is important that Verra has taken action, the allegations of abuse, which Verra will now investigate, were not picked up by Verra or the audit process that is integral to its carbon offsetting system.
- This raises serious questions about the auditing and accreditation system that underpins the carbon offsetting industry that has enabled such abuses to go unchecked for so many years.
Note: This story has also been discussed by The Guardian and REDD-Monitor.
