A dangerous distraction Why offsetting will worsen the climate and nature emergencies

Ahead of the United Nations Climate Conference, COP26, we've written a report that shines a light on how the polluting industries destroying our planet are trying to green their image using offsetting.

Climate scientists have said that global temperature levels must be kept below 1.5 degrees to prevent the very worst impacts of climate breakdown. Earlier this year, leading scientists confirmed that if we want to have a chance of staying below the 1.5°C  threshold, we urgently and drastically need to reduce our emissions.

The best way to prevent the heating of our planet is to end the use of fossil fuels for good. Yet offsetting is being used as an excuse to continue using these climate-wrecking fuels.

What is offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is touted as a way to compensate for continuing fossil fuel emissions by reducing emissions elsewhere or drawing them down using trees, etc. As well as carbon offsetting, businesses and governments are also promoting biodiversity offsetting. This is where harming nature in one place is in theory compensated by restoring nature elsewhere.

Both types of offsetting are based on the premise that we have the luxury of causing environmental harm in one place by reducing harm in another. We no longer have this luxury. We need to both stop harming the planet and launch a major restoration plan.

Offsetting is being used as a convenient excuse for governments and businesses to continue business as usual.

Very bright sun in a very bright fire-like background

The offsetting con

We urgently need to slash our fossil fuel emissions. Planting trees can’t take up all these emissions. Carbon pollution will warm the planet for centuries. Trees and other "nature-based solutions" may only lock up carbon for decades.

We also need to protect and restore nature. You can’t harm nature in one place and make amends by restoring it somewhere else. Habitats are as unique and irreplaceable as a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.

What’s worse is that some offsetting projects also cause harm. For example, trees can be planted in the wrong place, such as on peatlands, which have a major role in storing carbon. Some projects use the land of local and indigenous people without their involvement and permission.

Factory emitting smoke amongst clear sky

Why offsetting is a dangerous distraction

One of the great attractions of offsets to polluters is that they're cheaper and easier than investing in cutting emissions or protecting nature. And why invest in research and innovation when you can buy offsets instead? This is why they're such a dangerous distraction. Governments and companies are wasting time and money on flawed offsetting projects rather than investing in the real solutions.

Researchers at Lancaster University have tried to calculate the real-world impact of offsetting. In their worst-case scenario, the promise of offsetting schemes and other carbon-removal approaches could lead to an additional 1.4°C of global heating, which would be catastrophic.

A lone firefighter assessing a forest fire

Dangerous offsetting in practice

 

Carbon offsetting and nature offsetting are no longer just a distraction – they're a danger. Here are 4 case studies which show just how catastrophic offsetting can be.

 

Airplane in the sky with a sign that says 'Heathrow (Terminal 4 & Cargo)'
Heathrow airport
Heathrow airport, which is already one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions in the UK, wants to build a third runway. Heathrow is trying to use carbon offsetting to greenwash its non-existent environmental credentials.

Heathrow is hoping that offsetting by paying for peat restoration might lead to societal approval and a government go-ahead for expansion. Of course, peatlands do need restoring, as they're important carbon sinks and important for nature. But the UK government has already committed to fixing peatland.
Heathrow airport
Heathrow airport, which is already one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions in the UK, wants to build a third runway. Heathrow is trying to use carbon offsetting to greenwash its non-existent environmental credentials.

Heathrow is hoping that offsetting by paying for peat restoration might lead to societal approval and a government go-ahead for expansion. Of course, peatlands do need restoring, as they're important carbon sinks and important for nature. But the UK government has already committed to fixing peatland.
Diggers and other heavy vehicles at Shotton opencast coal mine in Northumberland
Coal mining in Cumbria
The UK government is proud of its record of phasing out coal in the UK, and has committed to the end of coal usage for energy. So, when an application for a new coal mine in Cumbria was made, and supported by the local council, you would expect the government to step in and say no. But it didn’t. It took a public outcry for the government to consider changing its mind.

The company behind the mine says it will offset the carbon emissions associated with mining the coal, but not burning it. It says it will use offsets offered by Gold Standard to do so. Gold Standard carbon offsets are better than most, although far from perfect. But embarrassingly for the mining company, Gold Standard has now said it doesn’t want its offsets used as an excuse to continue extracting fossil fuels.
Coal mining in Cumbria
The UK government is proud of its record of phasing out coal in the UK, and has committed to the end of coal usage for energy. So, when an application for a new coal mine in Cumbria was made, and supported by the local council, you would expect the government to step in and say no. But it didn’t. It took a public outcry for the government to consider changing its mind.

The company behind the mine says it will offset the carbon emissions associated with mining the coal, but not burning it. It says it will use offsets offered by Gold Standard to do so. Gold Standard carbon offsets are better than most, although far from perfect. But embarrassingly for the mining company, Gold Standard has now said it doesn’t want its offsets used as an excuse to continue extracting fossil fuels.
Trees in a forest
Total
Land-grabbing is where local people’s land is taken from their ownership when it is sold to corporations by governments. It’s not new – science journalist Fred Pearce wrote a book about it almost 10 years ago. But the rise of offsetting, particularly tree planting, risks accelerating it.

In this case, energy company Total wants to buy 10 million hectares of land for tree planting. It has already signed an agreement with the Republic of Congo to plant a 40,000-hectare forest. But much of this land is home to indigenous Aka pygmies and Bantu farmers. What will happen to them? And what trees will Total plant? A report by Friends of the Earth International and others suggests they may be non-native trees.

The sorry story of land-grabbing looks set to continue unless offsetting is curbed.
Total
Land-grabbing is where local people’s land is taken from their ownership when it is sold to corporations by governments. It’s not new – science journalist Fred Pearce wrote a book about it almost 10 years ago. But the rise of offsetting, particularly tree planting, risks accelerating it.

In this case, energy company Total wants to buy 10 million hectares of land for tree planting. It has already signed an agreement with the Republic of Congo to plant a 40,000-hectare forest. But much of this land is home to indigenous Aka pygmies and Bantu farmers. What will happen to them? And what trees will Total plant? A report by Friends of the Earth International and others suggests they may be non-native trees.

The sorry story of land-grabbing looks set to continue unless offsetting is curbed.
Two trains at Brighton Station with houses in the horizon
HS2
The UK probably needs another north-south train line to shift freight and cars off the road network. But it doesn’t need a track so super-fast that it must be routed through so many valuable habitats.

The UK government anticipated the likely public outcry over the harm to ancient forests and other wildlife sites that building HS2 would cause. So they used biodiversity offsetting to make people feel better, promising “no net loss” of nature.

In response, The Wildlife Trusts produced a damning report on the harm to nature that HS2 will do. The report says the railway line will “cause permanent loss of nature, increased fragmentation of wild places, and the local extinction of endangered species”. Even worse, it finds that some of the “amateurish” biodiversity offset sites will also harm nature.

This is yet another striking example of how biodiversity offsetting will be used as cover for a business-as-usual approach to development that treats nature with contempt.
HS2
The UK probably needs another north-south train line to shift freight and cars off the road network. But it doesn’t need a track so super-fast that it must be routed through so many valuable habitats.

The UK government anticipated the likely public outcry over the harm to ancient forests and other wildlife sites that building HS2 would cause. So they used biodiversity offsetting to make people feel better, promising “no net loss” of nature.

In response, The Wildlife Trusts produced a damning report on the harm to nature that HS2 will do. The report says the railway line will “cause permanent loss of nature, increased fragmentation of wild places, and the local extinction of endangered species”. Even worse, it finds that some of the “amateurish” biodiversity offset sites will also harm nature.

This is yet another striking example of how biodiversity offsetting will be used as cover for a business-as-usual approach to development that treats nature with contempt.

What should we do?

Offsets hinder innovation, don’t work, and enable greenwashing. To counter the climate and ecological emergencies, we need to:

  • stop using fossil fuels
  • invest in green transport and buildings
  • accelerate the growth of renewable energy
  • restore nature
  • ban dodgy offsets.
READ THE REPORT

in full for more on offsetting and its dangers