Carbon offsettingOffsetting regulations

Best practice for carbon offsetting schemes

Contributing to a tree-planting scheme is one way to offset the carbon we generate

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) plans to introduce a voluntary Code of Best Practice in Spring 2008 to ensure consumer confidence in the Kyoto-compliant carbon offset market.

Accredited carbon offsetting schemes

Accredited schemes will be given a government quality mark showing they meet the required standards of transparency, quality and verification. Which? welcomes the new government standards and hopes companies selling Kyoto-compliant offsets will apply for accreditation.

Voluntary carbon offsetting schemes

Non-Kyoto scheme providers are being encouraged by Defra to develop their own standard, as less formal, ‘voluntary’ offsets (known as VERs) will not be included in the Defra scheme.

VERs tend to be generated by small-scale projects, assessed by third party organisations, and may bring benefits beyond a reduction in carbon emissions, such as social and economic help to deprived communities.

In the meantime, there are two major standards schemes for voluntary offsets:

• The Voluntary Gold Standard, launched by the World Wildlife Fund in May 2006
• The Voluntary Carbon Standard, developed by The Climate Group and the International Emissions Trading Association

Carbon offsetting: is it worth it?

Defra estimates that the voluntary carbon offset market will grow from around £60 million in 2006 to some £250 million by 2009.

Carbon offsetting by nature doesn't reduce overall carbon emissions. You're simply paying someone else to remove or prevent the same amount of carbon as is produced by the activity you're undertaking. 

Reducing emissions by shrinking your carbon footprint is the best way to tackle climate change – see 'Carbon-saving tips' for some easy first steps.

Most of the websites we looked at offered tips to reduce your carbon footprint. We think all offset companies, if they're serious about the issue, should encourage their customers to reduce their carbon emissions before they seek to offset.

Many environmental charities are sceptical about carbon offsetting. Friends of the Earth doesn't support carbon offsetting, other than as a last resort, while Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worried respectively that offsetting could actually encourage people to take flights and unnecessary journeys, and mask the wider problem, namely ‘our rampaging consumption of fossil fuels’.

Why not just plant trees?

Carbon-capture (sequestration) schemes, such as tree-planting, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the effectiveness of tree-planting is disputed and the carbon trees absorb could be released again in the future (via fire, disease or changes in land use). 

Nevertheless, forestry schemes do have other positive impacts, such as the preservation of wildlife. The Welsh Assembly’s scheme, for example, under which a tree will be planted for every child born in Wales from 1 January 2008, aims to protect Wales’ indigenous woodlands and to strengthen young people’s connection with their environment.