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Over 90% Of Rainforest Carbon Offsets Are Useless. Or Are They?
Has The Guardian got it right?
Over the last few days, a recent article by The Guardian has been making the rounds in various environmental activism circles. According to their scientifically backed investigation, the world’s biggest supplier of rainforest-based carbon offsetting, Verra, has been misselling its services. All in all, they estimate that 94% of the carbon credits the company has sold have actually captured zero carbon. Many governments, international groups, and companies had planned to use Verra’s services to become carbon neutral and meet the tight emissions regulations set out in the Paris Agreement. So this news is profoundly devastating. Or is it? You see, all is not quite as it seems.
Before we dive in, let’s quickly recap how Verra’s rainforest-based carbon credits work. Firstly, an external organisation takes control of a portion of rainforest and protects it from deforestation. Verra then comes in and estimates how many hectares of land can be saved from deforestation, which they convert into the equivalent amount of carbon captured by this protected rainforest. Afterwards, they issue carbon credits for this amount, which companies can buy to claim that they captured carbon and offset their emissions. This money is then passed on to the original organisation that…
