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The Offset Balance AS CALLS FOR GREATER ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION BECOME LOUDER, WHAT ROLE DOES CARBON OFFSETTING HAVE ON A PATH TO CLIMATE SUSTAINABILITY? WE SPEAK TO FOUR INDUSTRY EXPERTS TO FIND OUT introduction > JAMES FARLE Y
V IC T OR M A G A ZINE
The world’s first carbon offset project was launched in 1989 when Connecticutbased Applied Energy Services financed an agriforest in Guatemala to offset the emissions of its new coal-fired power plant. While the project’s founders claimed the venture to be a success, several independent studies argued that while the project design was well intentioned, the environmental and social impact was significantly lower than initially modelled and, ultimately, the emissions were never fully offset. In many ways, a failure would not be surprising. Innovative projects burdened with a myriad of sensitive dependencies rarely succeed first time. What’s undeniable though is the fact that this initiative was visionary. Eight years later, the signing of the Kyoto Protocol enabled the global commoditisation of the carbon market. It allowed countries that had emission units to spare – emissions permitted but not ‘used’ – to sell this excess capacity to countries that were over their targets. With globalisation on an unstoppable rise, this was a global solution to a global problem. Over time, the conversation around offsetting has become more complex and its place in sustainability increasingly debated. Critics point to the fundamental fact that the practice of offsetting does not itself create an actual carbon reduction. They argue that the positive effects of offsetting projects are difficult to estimate and monitor and, in some cases, projects would’ve been viable without investment. Critics claim that the unregulated Voluntary Carbon Market encourages adverse behaviours, and that individuals and organisations may choose an easier path of pay-to-pollute to avoid the complexities and costs of reducing emissions at the source. Proponents of carbon offsets are equally entrenched. They claim that offsets create new environmental benefits where they do not exist, that projects can bring a multitude of other social benefits to countries that greatly need them, that the scientific standards are transparent and that there is a high level of independent auditing at both the project scoping and monitoring stages. The key argument that advocates offer is that without carbon offsets and an offset market, what other open market mechanism is there available to individuals and organisations that wish to generate environmental improvements in all areas of the world? As we emerge from the pandemic, there is growing public support for a more environmentally sustainable future and more aggressive actions to realise this aim. These calls are met with varying levels of
