Switzerland Is Paying Poorer Nations to Cut Emissions on Its Behalf

Switzerland wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by the year 2030.

The Swiss don't plan to reduce emissions by that much. The European country is paying poorer nations to reduce emissions in order to get Switzerland to give them credit for it.

In order to help households move away from burning wood for cooking and rein in greenhouse gas emissions, Switzerland is paying to install efficient lighting and cleaner stove in up to five million households inGhana.

Switzerland will count the emissions reductions as progress towards its climate goals.

Veronika Elgart is the deputy head of international climate policy at the Federal Office for the Environment in Switzerland.

There are questions over the fairness of this mechanism. Critics say that if other nations follow suit, it could delay climate action in wealthier countries that are already responsible for most of the greenhouse gasses that are warming the world. It could take advantage of projects in poorer countries that wouldn't have been possible without foreign funding.

According to Crispin Gregoire, a former ambassador to the United Nations from Dominica, it is a way of passing on responsibility to reduce emissions. Switzerland is going to other countries that have low emissions to fulfill that obligation.

At last year's global climate summit in Glasgow, President Luis Arce of Bolivia said the idea was akin to carbon capitalism.

The Paris Agreement allowed countries to work together to reduce emissions. Guidance to make sure that emissions reductions aren't double counted is one of the rules that nations have made progress in laying down. Much of how that would work still needs to be adjusted. The issues are part of a wide-ranging agenda at this week's United Nations climate conference

Switzerland has made it clear that it will not reach its emissions reduction targets on its own, and that it needs to look for at least a third of its reductions elsewhere. It already uses hydroelectric and nuclear power to generate most of its electricity.

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Switzerland has already signed pacts with eight nations and is in talks with at least three more. Japan and Sweden intend to do the same thing.

Thomas Day is an expert in carbon markets at the NewClimate Institute, an organization in Cologne, Germany, that advocates bolder climate policies.

The Swiss wanted to make public buildings in Georgia more energy efficient. Georgia was preparing for those changes. He said that Switzerland would have gotten credit for emissions cuts anyways. Georgia would have to take on more difficult or expensive projects if it wanted to meet its own targets.

Jade Begay, the climate justice director at NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led social and environmental organization based in Rapid City, S.D., said that rich nations like Switzerland have an obligation to help developing nations.

The rule that allows such deals is dangerous because it allows wealthier countries to continue pollution and business as usual.

The director at the KliK Foundation, a nonprofit in Switzerland that is working with the government to implement the agreements, said Switzerland was now planning to fund more ambitious policies in Georgia.

Georgia has the ability to approve or reject projects covered by the agreement. She said that its partner countries are in control. She said that Switzerland would make sure that the projects didn't happen. There was no response from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.

As rich nations of the world are disproportionately responsible for the emissions that are driving climate change, they are being criticized for failing to compensate poorer nations as promised so they can better adapt to warming temperatures.

According to an analysis by the Overseas Development Institute, Switzerland's contribution to global climate funding falls short of what would be their share of an internationally agreed target of $100 billion a year. Under the Paris accord, it is falling behind.