Carbon Offset Confusion

Treehugger reports on a protest by enviornmentalists against companies that have been set up to protect the environment. Last week, a group of climate change activists called London Rising Tide raised the profile of the idea of the ‘Carbon Neutral Con’ by occupying the head offices of the Carbon Neutral Company, a UK offset providers. TH says:

While the group acknowledges that many people purchasing offsets are doing so ‘with the best intentions’, they argue that offsets amount to little more than guilt-relief for high polluting lifestyles.

…This distinction between carbon management and carbon offsets is an interesting one. If offset companies really can engage with their customers, help them to reduce emissions at source as much as possible, and then offset the rest while they seek even larger reductions, then they are probably providing a valuable service. However, there is no question that they do also help alleviate people’s guilt about polluting, and can therefore act to prolong damaging behaviors.

Meanwhile, British companies like Virgin are planning to revolt against British government plans to regulate carbon-offsetting. The Independent says:

Civil servants will hold a series of workshops with companies next month to try to persuade them to adopt the new code. This would only recognise larger, more expensive projects, such as the clean-up of a coal plant in China, which are more thoroughly audited.

But many companies say that this would exclude community-based projects, which consumers are more likely to back… HSBC is also urging the Government to include the smaller schemes in the new code, as is Virgin Atlantic.

At PSFK, we think this confusion is going to drive the trend we identified as Brand Abstinence.

Carbon Offsetting On Wikipedia