Deutsche Welle Chinese Edition recently reported that the German Environmental Protection Agency (UBA) suspects 45 of 66 Chinese climate emission reduction projects of fraud involving carbon credits worth approximately 1.5 billion euros. The German government has taken measures to revoke the certification of these projects, but the huge financial losses have been irreparable.
The German authorities conducted an in-depth review of Chinese projects and found defrauding EU emission reduction certificates through false declarations and exaggerated data. The application period for many projects was during the Covid-19 period when travel of relevant certification personnel was severely restricted.
In EU’s carbon emission reduction system, Upstream Emission Reductions (UER) projects can obtain corresponding carbon credits by implementing reduction measures in the upstream industrial supply chain, such as improving equipment energy efficiency. However, lack of necessary independence and transparency in the UER certification process allowed the same people to involve in the creation, validation and certification at the same time. They were very familiar with the UER system and used their professional knowledge and industry loopholes to enable fake projects to pass certification. The German investigation also found that a market for buying and selling UER certifications has formed in China.
So far, Chinese officials have not responded directly to the relevant investigations and fraud accusations launched by Germany.
Source: DW Chinese, September 22, 2024
https://p.dw.com/p/4kucQ