Four experts and journalists briefed NPF International Trade fellows on how environmental issues are playing out in Asian trade, how biodiversity and green energy conflict, and how to distinguish good carbon credits from greenwashing. [Video | Transcript]

4 takeaways:

➀ Know the difference between carbon markets: compliance and voluntary. The science suggests carbon reduction targets cannot be achieved without removing carbon dioxide from the air. “We think green financing can play a role,” said Genevieve Soh, head of platforms and ecosystems at Climate Impact X, a climate science and risk management group… But high-quality and transparent carbon markets are necessary. Compliance markets are created and regulated by mandatory national, regional or international carbon reduction regimes, whereas voluntary markets enable companies and individuals to purchase carbon offsets on a voluntary basis with no intended use for compliance purposes. But sometimes the markets interplay when a carbon tax is involved, according to Soh. Singapore recently announced it will be increasing its carbon tax, but will soon allow carbon credits to offset up to 5% of their taxable emissions.

➁ Here’s how to report on high-quality, transparent carbon credits. An Australian professor recently created a furor by asserting that the carbon market was “largely a sham,” as most of the carbon credits approved did not represent real or new cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. “At this point, there is no one standard that everyone kind of abides by,” Soh said. However, there are organizations that articulate what a good carbon credit looks like and help journalists with environmental accountability reporting. For local regulations, specifically in Australia, the Australian Carbon Credit Units set out rules that can be used to judge whether the carbon reduction is good enough, Soh said. Within voluntary markets, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Climate Market is an independent governance body that sets and enforces global threshold standards using science and expertise. And the third group to look at are industry-oriented organizations, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. Pay attention to the work that is coming out of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative, Soh said it is helping “companies articulate what is a fair and good claim.”

➂ The renewable energy push could drive species into extinction before climate change does. Audrey Tan, who covers the environment for The Straits Times in Singapore, said she’s focused on finding the intersections between environmental, trade and human stories. Singapore recently started importing green energy from hydropower dams in Laos, but these structures, come to a cost to biodiversity. “You have the Mekong giant catfish critically endangered and getting worse because of these structures… Communities always get displaced whenever a dam is being built,” Tan said. “The demand for energy in Asia is growing so rapidly and so governments are trying to put renewable energy projects in what they perceive as empty plots of land. But what humans think is empty may not entirely be the case,” she said. The great Indian bustard bird is one of the biggest, heaviest flying birds, but because they don’t fly high, they crash into power lines. “I think there are fewer than 100 of these birds left in the world and [it] could turn out that our renewable energy push could be driving species to extinction, even before climate change drives them to extinction.” Sun Cable, an Australian company, wants to lay an undersea electrical cable from Darwin all the way to Singapore—over 2,000 miles apart from each other. “There will also be an environmental cost to that,” Tan said.

➃ Online shopping and other consumer decisions affect emissions. Transportation uses fossil fuels and is responsible for about 16% of total greenhouse gas emissions today, said Lynette Cheah, Professor of Engineering at Singapore University of Technology and Design. “If you ship it by sea, your total emissions will be about 1.19 kilograms of CO2 equivalent for [a] package. And by air, it tends to be over around seven kilograms of CO2 equivalent, so the difference is quite stark.” Cheah’s research among consumers using the site Taobao—a popular Asian e-commerce site—found that slightly over half of surveyed shoppers in Singapore were willing to wait longer for their package to arrive via sea if the carbon emissions levels of sea vs. air shipping were presented. It seems that “green labels would definitely help” reduce emissions, she said. For in-person shopping, a study done by the Nanyang Technological University found that the resources going into making a paper bag is more harmful than making a single-use plastic bag, said Tan. The best option is a reusable bag that is used 100 times.

National Press Foundation’s International Trade Fellowship in Singapore is sponsored by the Hinrich Foundation. NPF is solely responsible for the content.