Explainer: Going green? Does offsetting carbon emissions count?
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[November 27, 2019]
By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) - Among the most hotly
contested topics at international climate change talks in Madrid on
December 2-13 will be the role of market-based mechanisms for reducing
emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon offsets.
WHAT IS OFFSETTING AND WHY IS IT A TRICKY TOPIC?
Carbon offsetting allows a country to help reach its own emissions
reduction targets by funding emission reductions in another country.
Companies are also increasingly using carbon credits to offset their
emissions.
The first major offsetting scheme, the U.N.’s clean development
mechanism (CDM), was set up under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in which 190
countries agreed country-by-country emission reduction targets.
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The scheme was designed to help fund emission reduction projects in
developing countries, while also providing offset credits to the
developed world to help meet its Kyoto targets.
Negotiators in Madrid are set to discuss what kind of offsets, if any,
should be used to meet the targets set out in the 2015 Paris agreement
and how they should be monitored, following some cases where emissions
cuts did not materialize.
The issue of which country claims the emission reduction will also need
to be thrashed out, to avoid double counting.
WHAT KIND OF PROJECTS QUALIFY?
Carbon offset schemes cover all greenhouse gases but are measured in
terms of carbon dioxide equivalent and can be awarded carbon credits.
More than 8,100 projects in 111 countries have registered with the CDM
scheme, which has handed out over 2 billion carbon credits, called
Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), representing 2 billion tonnes of
carbon dioxide reduction.
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Projects registered under the scheme range from capturing and using
methane gasses in pig manure to create electricity to replacing
traditional wood and coal burning cookstoves with cleaner
alternatives such as ethanol. Offsets can be bought by individuals,
companies or countries.
WHAT ABOUT CARBON SINKS?
Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, or REDD+,
allows developing nations to earn carbon credits, which they can
sell, when they reduce deforestation and degradation or conserve,
rehabilitate and replant forests.
To qualify, carbon credits from REDD+ projects must be approved by
the U.N.s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
DO THEY WORK?
Proponents say offsetting can channel much-needed climate finance to
developing countries.
Critics say offsetting emissions reduces incentives for the drastic
emissions cuts needed to slow global warming and does not always
bring the intended benefits; for instance, new trees may not grow as
quickly as promised.
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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