Westminster’s Welsh Affairs Committee has warned that carbon offset projects, which involve mass tree planting so that major companies can claim eco-credentials, is resulting in the loss of family farms and communities. Carbon offset schemes allow individuals and businesses to invest in environmental projects to balance out their own carbon footprints. Such companies offer to plant trees in sustainable projects around the world or in British woodland management and creation. But concerns were raised that companies could be attempting to “game the system” by investing in farming land to offset emissions which are then lost to Welsh agriculture. Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Committee Stephen Crabb MP said that farmers could find themselves “priced out” of good quality farming land as many cannot compete with the prices paid by wealthy companies for the land. Around a fifth of Welsh farms had an income of less than zero, with an average …
RSS Feed | The Epoch Times