Joint Statement Why carbon offsetting undermines climate targets

The document contends that carbon offsetting provides a 'social license' for high-emitting activities to continue and fails to address the root cause of climate change. It highlights systemic quality issues in carbon crediting, such as lack of additionality and non-permanent removals, and argues that the limited supply of high-quality credits cannot meet demand. The authors call for voluntary and regulatory frameworks to exclude offsetting from interim emission reduction targets, citing the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and UN HLEG recommendations as models for maintaining ambition.

• Carbon offsetting is viewed as a mechanism that delays climate action by allowing entities to continue emitting while merely moving reductions from one location to another, often providing a "social license" for high-emitting activities to persist.
• The document identifies several inherent credibility issues with carbon crediting programmes, including the fact that most credits are likely not 'additional', the use of unrealistic baselines, leakage effects, and the false equivalence between non-permanent carbon removal and permanent fossil fuel emissions.
• Carbon offsetting is argued to undermine carbon prices by creating a false impression of cheap abatement options, which disincentivizes the necessary large-scale investments required to transform corporate value chains and economic systems.
• The statement asserts that 78 companies are responsible for over 70% of global historical greenhouse gas emissions and should therefore focus on deep internal reductions rather than buying credits.
• The authors advocate for the exclusion of carbon credits from interim emission reduction targets, noting that the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) already prohibit merging offsets with actual reductions in corporate reporting.

APA

Smith, C. (2024). Joint Statement Why carbon offsetting undermines climate targets. Changing Markets Foundation. https://changingmarkets.org/joint-statement-why-carbon-offsetting-undermines-climate-targets/

Chicago

Smith, Caitlin. Joint Statement Why carbon offsetting undermines climate targets. Changing Markets Foundation, 2024. https://changingmarkets.org/joint-statement-why-carbon-offsetting-undermines-climate-targets/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Smith |first1=Caitlin |title=Joint Statement Why carbon offsetting undermines climate targets |publisher=Changing Markets Foundation |date=8 July 2024 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/joint-statement-why-carbon-offsetting-undermines-climate-targets/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{smith2024joint, author = {Smith, Caitlin}, title = {{Joint Statement Why carbon offsetting undermines climate targets}}, publisher = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2024}, month = jul, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/joint-statement-why-carbon-offsetting-undermines-climate-targets/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }