Carbon offsets are when you pay an amount of money for the planting of trees (or growing another carbon-sucking plant like kelp), to cover the emissions you generate in your organisation.
The system has pros and cons.
A pro is that if you know you’re emissions, you can pay to plant that many trees and become a “carbon neutral” organisation. If you offset more than your emissions, you’ll be “carbon negative”.
The cons are that this can beat but of a smoke-screen. It creates permission for organisations to make no other climate positive changes, because technically they offset any emissions they create now.
For example, a bank could offset all of it’s emissions, but still fund coal mines.
An average consultancy could offset it’s emissions, and decide not to improve its supply chain, or install solar, or switch to electric fleet vehicles, because technically they’re covered.
Carbon offsets are a great system – the forests that get planted as a result are absolutely necessary for drawing down harmful emissions from the air.
But carbon offsets alone aren’t a solution – emission reduction is critically as important as drawdown, so ensure that if you do purchase offsets, they form part of your transitional climate policy.
Once we hit net zero, they’re no longer needed!
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