![]() ![]() Overall, Carbon Brief identified 37.8m carbon offsets that were used by 34 of the top 50 businesses to help meet their climate targets. The analysis relied on these alternative data sources because there are significant gaps in the public information available from the registries that “issue” carbon credits, after going through a process of verification. This draws on a methodology developed by Prof Gregory Trencher, an energy policy researcher at Kyoto University, and colleagues, for a study of offsetting behaviour by four oil majors. Some 28 have explicitly stated their intention to use offsets, but others use them too, the analysis shows.Ĭarbon Brief then combined data from three sources to investigate how many offsets have been used by these companies between 20. To understand how major companies are employing offsets, Carbon Brief used Net Zero Tracker to identify the top 50 publicly listed companies, by revenue, that have set themselves net-zero or similar goals. Sign-up to Carbon Brief’s award-winning newsletters hereĪt the same time, concerns have been raised by activists and scientists that offsets are providing a cheap alternative to climate action, while delivering negligible emissions cuts. In total, 146m credits were “retired” – meaning they were used – from the four largest registries in 2022, more than double the volume just three years earlier. There has been a surge in voluntary offset purchases in recent years, coinciding with societal and political pressure on corporations to decarbonise. Each represents one tonne of CO2 that has – in theory, at least – been reduced or removed from the atmosphere elsewhere, by a project such as a windfarm or a preserved forest.Ĭompanies then claim these cuts as their own and use them to “offset” their emissions as they work towards self-assigned climate targets – for example, to become “ net-zero” or “ carbon-neutral” by a fixed date. A growing body of evidence suggests these projects often overstate their climate impact.īusinesses, organisations and even individuals can purchase carbon “credits” on the voluntary offset market. Half of the offsets were from REDD+ forest protection projects.Only 8% of the offsets used were from projects that removed CO2 from the atmosphere – predominantly tree-planting. ![]() The single-largest provider was the Katingan peatland project in Indonesia, which generated 5.4m offsets for these companies – in theory, the equivalent of taking 2m cars off the road.Projects in Indonesia (9.2m offset credits), China (6m) and Colombia (5.8m) provided the most offsets.Fossil-fuel companies and car manufacturers were responsible for more than three-quarters of the offsets used by the top 50 companies.Indeed, the analysis shows there is no public information at all on the users of half the credits bought from the top four voluntary offset “ registries”. Campaigners say the rapidly growing trade is a cheap alternative to real carbon cuts that provides the biggest emitters with a “licence to pollute”.Ĭarbon Brief’s analysis of the world’s top 50 companies with net-zero targets by market capitalisation sheds new light on the often-opaque world of carbon credits. ![]() In practice, many projects have failed to deliver. In theory, credits represent emissions savings undertaken on behalf of the buyer – typically, by supporting renewable energy or forest-protection schemes. The top users of carbon credits – units each representing one tonne of CO2 avoided, reduced or removed – were Shell (9.9m units), Volkswagen (9.6m) and Chevron (6.0m).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |