The ‘Green’ Carbon Crisis

Let’s be honest, the environment and health of our planet is a hot topic these days. In the era of climate change and global warming, where children grow up learning these words, it isn’t hard to believe that you can pay to offset the carbon dioxide you release into the atmosphere with each breath. But what exactly does this mean?

Well, as the business community and governments around the world develop complex climate change models, you will begin to hear more about carbon offsets, and carbon credits. They are simply permits that allow the holder to emit a certain amount of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. One credit, for example, permits the emission of one ton of CO2 or any other greenhouse gas.

Typically, one obtains these credits by investing in projects that help reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. This could be by planting trees, that naturally remove CO2 from the atmosphere, or building a wind farm that is replacing a fossil fuel plant. But the truth is, carbon offsets are far from perfect, and can even be viewed as harmful. The most obvious negative aspect of a carbon offset, that has been proven study after study, is that it does not reliably reduce carbon emissions. Even so, offsets are now the backbone of the environmental policies of some of the biggest polluters on the planet.

The use of carbon offsets also needs to be thought of in a sustainable way. We must understand that they are an alternative for emergency needs, not a reason to rest and rely on the fact that someone else is doing the work for us. Offsets were originally a way for businesses that couldn’t immediately reduce their emissions to to balance things out by buying emissions reductions elsewhere. But many large corporations are now choosing to buy offsets voluntarily, claiming to be “carbon-neutral”. Nearly two thirds of the 2000 largest publicly listed companies, rely completely on carbon offsets instead of actual emissions reductions.

Carbon offsets are wildly popular. If the idea that you can simply invest a little money and make your carbon footprint disappear sounds too good to be true, that’s because IT IS. There are even boutique companies popping up, like “yepyou” – the world’s first human breath carbon offset service, where for a small price one can offset their breath the entire year. This should give you a pretty good idea as to why carbon offsets are complete crap. If you’re still wondering why? Let’s talk about a key criterion for any offset project, which is called – Additionality.

The idea behind this is that a carbon offset should provide an extra reduction of emissions, that wouldn’t have happened if the offset had not been carried out. For instance, planting a tree that wouldn’t have been planted otherwise is additional, as is saving a tree that would have been cut down. But there aren’t many checks and balances in place to prevent abuse, so in many instances the claim of additionality is….meh.

Take JP Morgan Chase and Co., a leading global financial services firm, that as of 2020 – claimed to have achieved carbon neutrality across all its operations. One of the ways in which it claimed to have erased its carbon footprint is by buying $1 million worth of offsets, claiming to protect an area called ‘Hawk Mountain Preserve’. But it turns out that the threats to the sanctuary were wildly exaggerated. As its name would suggest, it was already a preserve. The area had been closely looked after and managed since the 1930’s, and the forest DID NOT NEED SAVING.

And who sold them these offsets? A company called ‘The Nature Conservancy’, that has been extremely active in selling these credits for the past few years. They give companies like JP Morgan, Disney and others the ability to make tall marketing claims and label themselves as carbon-neutral. But the money from these projects doesn’t always go to places like ‘The Nature Conservancy’, instead it funds private businesses and companies that claim to be under threat themselves.

The problem with carbon offsets is – everyone wants to believe in them. Companies, land owners and even individuals simply want a way to make big claims, and sellers want to make money doing as little as possible. Now we talk about the middleman, charged with keeping both sides honest – carbon offset registries. They are a neutral 3rd party who sign to agree on the efficacy of potential offset projects. Simple enough right? Well… the issue is that they aren’t really accountable to anyone. Given that they are paid by the company selling the offsets, experts have agreed that their standards are FAR too low.

At the end, the problem isn’t with the projects themselves, it is good that they are protecting forests and saving the Earth. The issue is with claiming that they cancel out carbon emissions. Carbon offsets and carbon credits truly have the potential to save the planet, but we must make sure that we use them effectively, and are not actively make things worse.

#carboncrisis #ClimateAction #myonepercent #didyouknow #shalmalisirsi