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University Professor Julia Jones being filmed for Panorama

Professor Julia Jones shares her expertise on BBC Panorama investigation about β€˜Big Brands Green Claims’

A new investigation from the explores how green claims often depend on questionable forest carbon credits which research claims are The programme features Professor in Conservation Science, Julia Jones discussing her research about how well these credits (which aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation) are working.

Julia, who was invited to participate as an expert in this field, said β€œMy research focuses on better understanding the impact of conservation. ΜύI was interviewed for Panorama because of the , with colleagues at the University of Cambridge, to estimate how much deforestation would have happened at 40 odd sites across the tropics without the investment which came through the purchase of carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market”.Μύ

This research is getting a lot of attention in the light of a very which shows that many projects have sold more carbon credits than can be justified by the amount of deforestation they have avoided.”
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In we did find that, on average, these projects have slowed deforestation, however many individual projects have not delivered very much. Many are situated in places where the risk of deforestation is low, so even without the forest carbon project, the trees would have remained standing. In such cases, people who think they have offset their carbon emissions by buying these credits have been misled

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Professor Julia Jones

Julia is keen to stress that failures with the way carbon credits from avoided deforestation are currently issued should not distract from the importance of slowing the loss of tropical forests.

β€œIt is almost impossible to overemphasize how important it is to the future of our planet to stop the loss of tropical forests. Tropical forests and their soils lock up a huge amount of carbon. Improving the market for forest carbon credits is a priority given it will likely continue to play a part in financing tropical forest conservation in the short to medium term. However there are of course real issues with tying conservation of forests to ongoing emissions. We need to both slow fossil fuel emissions and conserve forests. Paying for one, using the other is not ideal.”

To read more about Julia’s views on this issue in general, click and to view the Panorama programme watch
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