By Tejas Ewing, Carbon Markets Coordinator, the New Economics Foundation, London
Last month we explored how Voluntary Carbon Offsetting is being used by some organisations as a way of dealing with their carbon emissions. We left off with saying that there were significant risks associated with any offsetting strategy, and they primarily involved the decision over what offsets to purchase. The key paradigm for judging quality is known as VALIDS, and is based on the following criteria:
Verifiability: In any offset project it is important that the baseline emissions levels were measured accurately, and that the subsequent emissions reductions were also accurately measured.
Additionality: Additionality is a key issue in carbon offsetting, and refers to whether the emissions reduction would have been generated regardless of your purchase. It is important that the emissions reductions would not have happened anyway, and are additional to business as usual. For example, a wind farm that would have been built anyway, due to government subsidies, does not count as additional. A local scale clean energy project in a small village, where your money makes the difference between success and failure would be additional.
Leakage: Offset projects must be careful not to cause additional emissions outside the project boundaries, caused by the emissions reductions activities of the project and its design. For example, protecting forests in one area can simply increase deforestation in another.
Impermanence: Offset projects should ensure that the emissions reductions are permanent, and that emissions do not immediately increase once the project ends. For example, tree planting projects must ensure the trees stay alive for over 50 years, and do not die due to lack of care and maintenance.
Double-Counting: An emissions reduction is only valid if it is generated once, sold once, and permanently retired. As a voluntary offsetter, it is important that your offset is only sold to you and used by you. You should ask for guarantees and certificates, or a registry of the project to ensure it is not double-sold.
Sustainable Development Benefits: Many consumers want to increase the benefit of their purchase by choosing offsets that specifically provide additional positive outcomes beyond the emissions reductions. These benefits are usually environmental, economic and social, and are often known as sustainable development benefits, because they increase the holistic benefits to the local community and the local environment. For example, a solar power project that also restored local habitats and provided jobs for local villagers would have overall sustainable development benefits.
Conclusion
The above requirements for effective offsets are challenging, and as a result very few offsets actually meet them. Offsetting is often controversial because of the lack of quality and regulation in the market, rather than the concept itself. For example, less than 1% of all the money spent on offsetting actually goes to communities most affected by climate change, and very few projects have any
additional sustainable development benefits. Many projects fail, or are poorly designed, and often profit is the main motive.
It is for those reasons that I am currently managing a project to provide a credible alternative to the poor quality offsets that often flood the market. The New Economics Foundation, in conjunction with partners including IIED and Comic Relief, is pioneering a new approach whereby organisations will be able to take responsibility for the impacts of their emissions by investing in climate change adaptation projects that will help the most vulnerable communities in the world adapt to the realities of a changing climate.
Rather than investing in projects that increase the profitability of factories in China, for example, organisations will be able to help communities in Africa and India become more resilient to the increased drought, flooding and changing agricultural patterns that they are already facing. This provides a solution that goes ‘beyond offsetting’ and closes the circle of emissions responsibility. A strategy of measuring emissions, reducing avoidable emissions, offsetting (in a credible way) unavoidable and irreducible emissions and
contributing to climate change adaptation to deal with the impacts of unavoidable emissions provides a comprehensive and holistic response to the reality of greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on the planet.
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Tejas Ewing is a leading expert on carbon offsetting and both the compliance and voluntary carbon markets, having published key analysis and critiques of voluntary carbon offset providers and the voluntary carbon market as a whole. His publications have been read by over 50,000 environmental leaders worldwide. He is also a well-known consultant on environmental issues from a business perspective having worked with many leading multinational companies on a freelance basis and also as part of his father’s company, Ewing Communications. Tejas would be happy to discuss how to make your organisation more environmentally friendly, while also increasing your brand value and reputation.
He can be reached at tejasewing@yahoo.ca
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