Nigerian environmental and human rights advocate visits Sacramento to oppose expanding cap-and-trade
Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface joined by California environmental justice and environmental advocates for rally at Air Board Hearing on controversial plan to add international forest offsets to California Cap-and-Trade Program
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – As the California Air Resources Board continues efforts to fast-track a controversial proposal with wide-reaching implications for the climate and for poor and vulnerable communities internationally and in California, a visiting Nigerian environmental and human rights advocate will rally alongside California residents Thursday outside an Air Board hearing to protest expanding the state’s cap-and-trade plan to include offset credits generated under the United Nations’ Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation — REDD — program. After the rally, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface will attend the hearing to share the findings of Seeing REDD: Communities, Forests and Carbon Trading in Nigeria, a report he co-authored for the Nigerian NGO Social Action, which highlights various human rights, land tenancy and economic justice concerns associated with REDD. The pay-to-pollute scheme enables entities in tropical regions to generate credits for not cutting down forests and to sell those credits to polluters in developed nations to ostensibly “offset” carbon emissions from the industrial burning of fossil fuels.
WHAT: Rally and Press Conference opposing California Air Resources Board proposal to expand the state’s cap-and-trade program to include REDD credits.
WHEN: Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 12:30 p.m.
WHERE: California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters, 1001 “I” Street, Sacramento
WHO:
Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, Social Action, Nigeria
Mari Rose Taruc, Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Amy Vanderwarker, California Environmental Justice Alliance
Gary Hughes, Friends of the Earth
Sandra Lupien, Food & Water Watch
Brian Nowicki, Center for Biological Diversity
VISUALS/AUDIO: People holding colorful signs
English and Spanish language interviews available.
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Expert contacts:
Gary Hughes, Friends of the Earth, 510-900-8807, [email protected]
Kay Cuajunco, California Environmental Justice Alliance, 619-889-7865, [email protected]
Tere Almaguer, PODER, 415-637-5832, [email protected]
Sandra Lupien, Food & Water Watch, 510-681-3171, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (703) 622-9093, [email protected]