Professor McAfee Criticizes California's Tropical Forest Offsets Plan

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Experts said research shows similar programs rejected by other governments have been ineffective. Members of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, which has never allowed tropical forest carbon offsets, sent a letter to the board in April opposing the standard.

“Prices of carbon are not competitive with profits from forest destroying industries,” Kathleen McAfee, global environmental policy professor at San Francisco State University, said Thursday. “They are subsidized and promoted and protected by the very same governments from which they’re accepting funds for forest conservation.”