If you type the words “is carbon offsetting” into a Google search field, the first three autofill suggestions it will make for completing your query are “effective”, “a con” and “greenwashing”. This gives some idea of the public’s scepticism towards the practice, in which organisations compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by buying ‘carbon credits’ elsewhere.
In May, Greenpeace criticised offsetting projects for allowing companies to continue with their business as usual without making an “absolute reduction in carbon emissions entering the atmosphere”. Yet demand for offsetting has never been higher in the corporate world. The chancellor has even expressed his desire for the City of London to become a global hub of trading in this market.
Robin Rix is chief policy and markets adviser at Verra, a US-based not-for-profit body that administrates a widely used standard for carbon offsetting. He reports that his organisation is “on track to issue 300 million credits this year, compared with 140 million in 2020 and 110 million in 2019”.