Offsetting carbon

Can we really just offset our carbon problems?

Offsetting can seem almost too good to be true. You can pay £10 to offset 1T of CO2 emissions, so technically you could offset your whole year’s emissions for the paltry sum of £100. Or take that transatlantic flight and pay £25 to offset the emissions and essentially be carbon neutral.

Of course, it doesn’t really work this way. The idea of offsetting is that your donation funds projects that look to reduce carbon emissions around the world. This can include reforestation, upgrading low-efficiency power sources and buildings, or installing renewable power sources.

Now these are definitely projects we should be funding, and they’re making great dents in reducing global carbon emissions. But there are two problems in the way the value of the offset is calculated and marketed to the consumer.

The first is that the projects take time, and the impact — which is almost always back-loaded (i.e. most of the benefit comes at the end)— is assumed to be distributed evenly.

The second is that the actual carbon impact of these projects is often overstated. Not all projects go ahead to plan. There are setbacks, failures, funding problems and just sheer bad luck. The value of the offsetting doesn’t take this into account though.

Most importantly, offsetting should not be seen as an excuse to continue (or increase) environmentally-destructive behaviours. Offsetting should be seen as something to do in addition to making personal changes to reduce your carbon footprint, and it is most definitely a long-term strategy, not a fix to short-term problems.

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