Carbon Offsets Aren’t Working and Need Reforms

Probably the best thing I’ve ever done to reduce my own carbon footprint was to stop commuting. I was in a position to shift into semi-retirement and start writing for a living in my own home instead of commuting into the city for a 9-to-5 office job.

I’ve also bought a hybrid car which, although it still has to burn some gasoline, uses less overall energy. It also doesn’t simply replace one fossil fuel with the other fossil fuels that power the electrical grid around here.

Most of us have some options available to directly lower our carbon emissions. When individuals and business can’t find enough of these options to meet their emission goals, they sometimes resort to buying “carbon offsets.”

Businesses Buy Credits to Offset Their Carbon Emissions

An example of a carbon offset is where a business can’t meet its emission target on its own. To offset that, it might buy credits that fund projects to reduce carbon dioxide (C02) in the atmosphere to balance its books.

There’s now a whole marketplace out there selling credits that pay other people to reduce atmospheric carbon for you. Your carbon offset money might go to reforestation, renewable energy projects, methane capture from farms or landfills, energy efficiency projects or carbon capture devices.

Dr. Philip W. Boyd is a professor at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia. Professor Boyd has been studying global change biology, biological oceanography, the ecological  impacts of climate change, and ecological adaptation for the past 27 years.

Carbon Offset Programs Aren’t Helping the Planet

Last week, the science journal Nature published a commentary on which Professor Boyd was the lead author. In it, the researchers argue that current carbon offset programs aren’t helping the planet.

As the authors explain, over 90% of the carbon offsets traded in voluntary markets don’t remove carbon from the atmosphere. Instead, they fund measures to avoid releasing it.

For example, today’s carbon offsets don’t pay forestry companies to stop cutting down trees. Most of the projects they fund don’t accomplish much in terms of lowering C02 levels, and the authors make a case for replacing them with initiatives that actually remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Humanity Needs at Least 15 times More Carbon Offsets

Beyond their ineffectiveness, the team has found that humanity needs at least 15 times more carbon offsets to meet the projected demand for 1.5 billion to 2 billion tonnes of C02 annually at the end of the decade.

Pricing is another issue with the current carbon offset system. There are a range of ways  projects can remove carbon, and they’re hard to compare or lump together.

There’s a wide variation in how mature these technologies are, their scalability, their effectiveness and, most importantly, their cost. Despite this, the marketplace simply sets a price for a tonne of carbon, even though one tonne of carbon can be very different from another in terms of successfully fighting climate change.

Price Per Tonne of Carbon Doesn’t Make Any Sense

What’s more, the price to offset a tonne of carbon doesn’t seem to make any sense, according to the authors. Carbon offset prices can be as low as $10 per tonne or as much as $100 per tonne. 

Either way, carbon offset prices are too low to support reputable, successful, long-term solutions. Meanwhile, the authors point to a “gold rush” involving hundreds of entrepreneurs chasing a projected annual market of a trillion dollars.

The researchers agree that a market-based approach is vital to removing carbon from the atmosphere, reducing C02 emissions and addressing the climate crisis. The team's concern is that a dysfunctional market creates distrust, which could wreck the the entire initiative.

Support Reputable Programs That Make a Difference

In the scientists' view, the carbon offset system needs to change in ways that support reputable, large-scale programs that make a genuine difference to the planet. They make four recommendations to make this happen.

First of all, since offsets aren’t equally effective, the researchers call for more detailed pricing. Instead of a simplistic price per tonne, pricing should take cost, sequestration time, and risk into account.

The second recommendation is for governments to apply taxes and subsidies as incentives for durable, safe and verifiable carbon-removal programs. The researchers call for subsidizing those carbon offsets that deliver large-scale, long-term solutions and tax credits for research and development improving these technologies.

Improve Observation Networks

To make sure the carbon offset methods are delivering the intended results, the team’s third recommendation is to improve observation networks. Satellites, drones and robotic floats with improved sensors could set benchmarks and ensure compliance.

Fourthly, regulators should require companies selling carbon offsets to warranty that their programs will remove the declared amount of carbon for the period specified. The penalties in the warranty would reflect the risks, costs and potential damages that failure could involve.

We’ve all heard the old saying, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." Carbon offsets tend to be the easy way out, especially for wealthy individuals and multinational corporations.

And Another Thing…

Instead of creating a second-hand market for our own responsibilities, everyone needs to find ways to reduce their own carbon emissions. It’s part of the new story humanity needs to help us make sense of the natural world and our place within it.

The authors suggest that the UN’s ‘No-Nonsense’ Climate Ambition Summit, scheduled for September 20 in New York City, discuss their recommendations and agree on ways to make carbon offsets more effective. As they put it, “Such issues must be agreed on internationally and quickly.”

We always have more to learn if we dare to know.

Learn more:

Carbon offsets aren’t helping the planet — four ways to fix them

Action needed to make carbon offsets from forest conservation work for climate change mitigation

Wildfire Season in Canada and Climate Change

Dismal Progress Reports Cause Earth Day Frustrations

UN Report Calls for Urgent Climate Action