Click here to log in or

Corporate carbon polluters plant trees in response to carbon dioxide emissions, but activists warn against greening and say that such afforestation plans undermine the emissions reductions needed to combat climate change.

At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, voluntary carbon offsets are under intense debate. This is a background.

Carbon offsets are when companies seek to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce emissions elsewhere (whether next door or on the other side of the planet).

Such programs have existed since the 1980s and include investing in renewable energy, mangroves and other natural carbon sinks, or planting trees that can absorb and store carbon dioxide during growth.

Recently, carbon polluters can even pay companies that directly absorb the warming carbon dioxide from the air and store it underground or convert it into fuel pellets, even though the cost of every ton of carbon dioxide removed is still very high.

In exchange for reducing emissions, investors can obtain carbon credits.

Under mandatory initiatives such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, companies may be obliged to do so, or they may be able to obtain carbon credits on the voluntary market.

As more companies commit to achieving zero net emissions (usually by 2050), many companies rely heavily on carbon offsets to achieve their goals.

Airlines around the world include carbon offsets in their plans to reduce massive greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Microsoft plans to plant trees not only to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, but also to compensate for all the carbon emitted by the company since its establishment in 1975.

Energy giants Shell, BP and ENI also rely heavily on afforestation plans.

TotalEnergies said on Monday that 40 million trees will be planted on 40,000 hectares of land in the Republic of Congo in the next ten years.

Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said that the carbon market is booming.

He said that by 2030, their value may be as high as 100 billion U.S. dollars, a huge leap from the 300 million U.S. dollars in 2018.

David Antonioli, the head of Verra, which certifies the carbon offset program, agrees.

He said: "There is no doubt that the market will grow, there will be greater interest in this market, and more financing will be available."

"We are hiring as many people as possible."

Environmental regulators say that carbon offset is not a viable stand-alone solution, and companies first need to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.

In the case of tree planting, it takes several years for the saplings to grow, and even this will not last forever.

Hydroelectric dams and reforestation may replace communities, and new forests may encroach on the land needed to feed the world’s growing population, reaching 9 billion by the middle of this century.

The Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Climate Action stated that offsetting is "a wrong solution. It...gives polluters an excuse to continue pollution."

Laurence Tubiana, who was France's chief negotiator who helped formulate the 2015 Paris climate treaty, also warned against "washing the green."

"Many companies, especially oil and gas companies, include a lot of offsets in their carbon neutrality plans," she said.

"But research shows that today's offset does not significantly reduce emissions."

Miles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics Group at Oxford University, said that "heroic reforestation" can help, but it cannot solve the problem of continued use of fossil fuels.

Experts say that the voluntary carbon market is taking off and is expected to achieve sustained growth.

Standard Chartered CEO Carney and Bill Winters recently established a private sector "special task force" to unify standards.

ActionAid and Greenpeace activists broke into one of their meetings at COP26 last week and denounced the initiative as a "scam."

"Stop greenwashing," Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish climate activist shouted as he walked out of the party.

Antonio Li, the head of the certification company, said that the NGO’s concerns are "effective."

But he said he and others are working to establish a "minimum performance level" for offset projects.

He suggested that consumer protection agencies can help check whether companies are offsetting as they claim.

The non-profit organization Carbon Market Watch said that countries should monitor at the national level, such as regulating corporate advertising around climate action.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that “there is too much confusion between emission reduction and net-zero targets, which have different meanings and different measurement standards”.

He said that he would "set up an expert group to propose clear standards to measure and analyze the net-zero commitments of non-state actors," but did not provide more details. Further exploration is expected to increase the cost of carbon offset by 10 times

If you encounter spelling errors, inaccuracies, or want to send an edit request for the content of this page, please use this form. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, please use the public comments section below (please follow the guidelines).

Please select the most suitable category to facilitate the processing of your request

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback to the editor.

Your feedback is very important to us. However, due to the large volume of news, we do not guarantee a personal response.

Your email address is only used to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your email, and Phys.org will not keep it in any form.

Send weekly and/or daily updates to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we will never share your details with third parties.

Medical research progress and health news

The latest engineering, electronic and technological advancements

The most comprehensive technology news report on the Internet

This website uses cookies to assist in navigation, analyze your use of our services, collect data for advertising personalization, and provide content from third parties. By using our website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our privacy policy and terms of use.