After years of campaigning by activists, the tide is finally turning on the idea of companies buying carbon credits to compensate for their emissions. But how exactly is carbon offsetting harmful and what’s the alternative?
Guidance on the use of carbon credits by private companies published today by the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI) is a step in the right direction to rein in greenwashing. The proposed set of rules forms a welcome basis to move the conversation forward but more attention should be given to how companies can contribute to climate action outside of carbon markets.
Our latest report reveals how we are reaching peak “carbon neutrality” but the tide is turning on this disingenuous form of marketing and climate action will be better for it.
This Carbon Market Watch report commissioned by the Belgian consumer organisation Test Aankoop/Test Achats analyses the credibility of climate claims found on 15 products in Belgian supermarkets. The study found that all the assessed products misled consumers in some way by implying some form of “neutral” climate impact that relied on the inappropriate use of …
Read more “Assessing the carbon neutrality claims of products in Belgian supermarkets”
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has just released a set of new rules which seek to boost the quality of carbon credits for offsetting but ignore other issues with the market. While this is an improvement on current practices, the problematic concept of offsetting itself must be abandoned. As part of its …
Despite claiming to be champions of climate action, two dozen of the world’s largest and richest corporations are hiding their climate inaction behind the fig leaf of green-sounding ‘net zero’ plans, concludes the 2023 edition of the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor. For that reason, governments must stop their dithering and regulate robustly what green claims companies are permitted to make.
A new type of carbon credit created at the Sharm el-Sheikh climate conference provides an overdue alternative to the offset claim. This signals a path towards more honest climate accounting and fewer loopholes for potential greenwashing.
The Sharm el-Sheikh climate conference’s final deal on Article 6 opens the door to secret carbon market deals between countries with little oversight. On a positive note, a new type of carbon credit could help spell the end of offsetting, but the agreement falls far short of what is needed.
The beyond value chain mitigation (BCVM) approaches for eight European airlines, which were collectively responsible for over half of the total CO2e emissions of the aviation sector in the EU in 2019, were assessed in this study to provide insights with regards to both the extent and quality of efforts, beyond the value chain, to …
Read more “Scoping voluntary corporate climate action in the European aviation sector”
A new study commissioned by Carbon Market Watch has revealed gaping holes in the effectiveness of voluntary climate action taken by eight major European airlines.
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