Carbon Offset Land Grabs: The Impact of Credits in the Global South

Recent reports from GRAIN and the Land Matrix Initiative reveal that millions of hectares of land in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are being acquired for carbon offset projects. These deals often displace local communities and replace biodiverse ecosystems with monoculture plantations to help Global North corporations claim carbon neutrality. Critics argue that these offsets do not actually reduce global emissions but instead shift accounting burdens to the Global South. The practice risks creating new forms of land dispossession while failing to provide meaningful climate mitigation or economic benefits to the affected populations.