Offsets: Interim and dreggs

Buying carbon offsets is a lazy climate action strategy.

There I said it.

Offsets on their own are basically permission to pollute, and are a poor strategy for being truly carbon neutral.

This is one way it can look:

• You drive a petrol-powered car.
• You Google “offset emissions of my car” and get 5.2 million results… you click the first one.
• In the dropdown, you select “small car” which estimates your car emits 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per year, based on a certain amount of assumed kms (maybe more than you drive).
• But it only costs $70 – less than a tank of fuel! And it’s in stock, hooray!
• You Add to Cart.
• You have a second of doubt, and quickly scroll around the website. You notice all the causes they support, and decide this is a good thing to do.
• You pay with your credit card.
• After a few minutes, you receive an email with a certificate. Your vehicle has been offset.
• Feel may now clear your conscience and continue driving, safe in the knowledge that you’re no longer contributing to climate change.

If it’s not clear, I’m taking the mick.

Aside from you having just paid someone to plant some trees – which is a beautiful thing – nothing has actually changed. Your car won’t magically fart a rainbow the next time you drive it, it’s still doing what it always did.

The concept of offsets is solid, but the way they’ve been framed and exploited is extremely poor. Too often, they’re used as a smokescreen.

Offsetting your private car like the example above, is different to how an organisation would measure it’s emissions then purchase carbon credits to offset them. But it demonstrates how simple the process of offsetting can be, and how quickly you can “tick off” your climate action and move on.

But offsets are still a good thing to do.

I called it a lazy climate action strategy when offsetting is the entire strategy. If all you’re doing is offsetting, without any of the emission reduction work, that’s ultra lazy and you’ll be called out for it.

But offsets fit beautifully at the start or the end of a climate strategy.

At the start, use them as an interim solution while you work to actually reduce your emissions.

At the end, use them to offset those emissions you just can’t find a good alternative for.

An organisation claiming to be carbon neutral could be doing amazing emission reduction work… or it could simply be paying to play.