Is it a good idea to use financial markets to trade soil carbon sequestration credits or tree planting credits to companies like Exxon in order to enable them to offset emissions or get to “net zero”? Is net zero even a credible concept? How should governments structure programs and payments designed to incentivize farmers to adopt practices that build soils? How can we better understand the carbon “offset” protocols now being developed by Canadian federal and provincial governments?

Speakers:

Dr. Doreen Stabinsky, Faculty of Global Environmental Politics, College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine). Dr. Stabinsky researches and writes about the impacts of climate change on agriculture and food security, and on the emerging issue of loss and damage from slow onset impacts of climate change. She also serves as advisor to a number of governments and international NGOs on issues related to agriculture and the ongoing negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Tamra Gilbertson is the carbon pricing education coordinator and climate change policy advisor of the Indigenous Environmental Network. She has a PhD from the University of Tennessee, Department of Sociology. She mainly works on environmental and climate justice, social movements, and extractive industry research, as well as carbon pricing, forests, and land policies related to development policies. Tamra is also a lecturer at the University of Tennessee.

About NFUniversity

The National Farmers Union is launching a series of monthly webinars wherein experts, researchers, farmers, and others will provide advanced (but accessible) analysis and information to NFU members and the public on a range of topics, including seeds, livestock, climate, sustainability, and justice. The sessions will build upon the foundational knowledge many NFU members and others already have and delve deeper into issues to raise our understanding to a higher level. The aim is to increase citizens’ capacities to analyze, advocate, and act.

Classes will consist of approximately 90 minutes of presentations and Q and A, followed by an informal discussion if participants wish to continue the conversation.

Sessions will be conducted in English, with French interpretation provided.