Lessons learned guide: work aviation offsetting scheme

The guide critiques the ICAO's CORSIA scheme, arguing that offsetting is incompatible with Paris Agreement goals and prone to failures seen in the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), such as lack of additionality and human rights violations.

• The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme (CORSIA), established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2016, does not reduce emissions but allows airlines to continue emitting more by purchasing carbon credits to compensate for growth above 2020 levels.
• Offsetting is deemed incompatible with the Paris Agreement because meeting those climate goals requires all sectors to reduce their own emissions rather than paying others to do so.
• Past offsetting mechanisms have proven unreliable; a European Commission study indicated that 73% of potential credits from the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) between 2013 and 2020 were unlikely to provide "real, measurable and additional" emission reductions.
• Offsetting projects have been linked to human rights violations, exemplified by the Barro Blanco hydro-dam project in Panama, which was removed from the CDM in 2016 following pressure from campaigners.
• Certain CDM methodologies for destroying industrial gases like HFC-23 and N2O created perverse incentives to increase pollution to profit from subsequent reductions.

APA

Perlman, K. (2018). Lessons learned guide: work aviation offsetting scheme. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2018/02/08/lessons-learned-guide-work-aviation-offsetting-scheme/

Chicago

Perlman, Kelsey. Lessons learned guide: work aviation offsetting scheme. Carbon Market Watch, 2018. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2018/02/08/lessons-learned-guide-work-aviation-offsetting-scheme/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Perlman |first1=Kelsey |title=Lessons learned guide: work aviation offsetting scheme |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=8 February 2018 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2018/02/08/lessons-learned-guide-work-aviation-offsetting-scheme/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{perlman2018lessons, author = {Perlman, Kelsey}, title = {{Lessons learned guide: work aviation offsetting scheme}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2018}, month = feb, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2018/02/08/lessons-learned-guide-work-aviation-offsetting-scheme/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }