A new report carried out by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative arm and The Guardian found that “although many forest projects were doing valuable conservation work, the credits that they generated by preventing environmental destruction appear to be based on a flawed and much-criticised system, even though these credits were being used to back up claims of “carbon-neutral flying” and net-zero commitments.”
From the report:
““It’s a scam. Neither planting trees nor avoiding deforestation will make a flight carbon neutral.””
“… But a detailed examination of how these schemes calculate their carbon savings by Unearthed and the Guardian, with SourceMaterial, has found evidence that raises serious doubts about the ability of these projects to offset emissions in line with the claims of major airlines. The investigation also suggests that the current flagship system for offsetting emissions through avoided deforestation may not be fit for purpose.
…
We found that despite multiple audits the reduced deforestation offsetting schemes used to justify eye-catching promises of carbon neutrality and guilt-free flying cannot prove they have produced enough carbon savings to justify these bold claims.”
The report is long and thorough and we highly recommend it for anyone interested in all things climate emergency and travel:
www.unearthed.greenpeace.org/2021/05/04/carbon-offsetting-british-airways-easyjet-verra
More resources on offsets:
The climate emergency needs real solutions, and we need to realize that we can’t buy our way out of it!