Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’
The Financial Times has been investigating dodgy carbon offset schemes in a story Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’.
A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.
Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and in some cases for clean-ups that they would have made anyway.
The growing political salience of environmental politics has sparked a “green gold rush”, which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go “carbon neutral”, offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their contribution to global warming.
The burgeoning regulated market for carbon credits is expected to more than double in size to about $68.2bn by 2010, with the unregulated voluntary sector rising to $4bn in the same period.
The FT investigation found:
- Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.
- Industrial companies profiting from doing very little – or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.
- Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.
- A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.
- Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.
There are a lot of cowboys in this market, in it for a quick buck and making life difficult for legitimate operators. When buying carbon credits ask your supplier how they can prove the emissions reductions, or sequestration you are paying for is actually happening. How do you know the price is fair and not too much, or conversely, so cheap that the credits themselves must be worthless. Does your provider transfer actual ownership of the credits to you, or do they ‘hold them in trust’ for you? How do you know you haven’t bought the same carbon credits as many other people? Are they traded on a registry, or on a promise? Does you provider employ engineers who calculate precisely the carbon emissions for any given business or event, or do they work on guesses?
Carbon Planet passes all of these legitimacy tests with flying colours. Our credits are the best on the market, we transfer ownership to our customers, and our team of engineers works globally to accurately determine your carbon footprints.
Carbon Planet is a keen supporter of the proposed new industry code of best practice for carbon offsetters. This code should go a long way to sorting out the genuine players from the opportunists out for a fast buck. — DS
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