CARBON POSITIVE – The Yasuni-ITT Initiative aims to create ‘carbon bonds’ to preserve a tract of in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest that also holds a lucrative oil resource ripe for exploitation. The carbon bonds would be issued over a government guarantee that oil won’t be extracted from the Yasuni National Park and the forest, its biodiversity and way of life of untouched indigenous groups preserved.If bond sales can raise enough to replace at least half of the $7 billion that stands to be foregone in oil licence royalties, then the government will not allow drilling to go ahead. Success would also deliver 407 million tonnes of emissions reduction savings, primarily from the avoided extraction and burning of 846 million barrels of oil under the reserve. Read More
