Is it the end for carbon offsets?

Leave a CommentIs it the end for carbon offsets?Technology

About three weeks after Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, quietly shelved the world’s largest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, the world’s number four iron ore producer, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., has decided to end purchases of voluntary carbon offsets. This comes as at least one major study has revealed carbon offsets are prone to ‘greenwashing’ and most credits don’t actually benefit the climate. 

Billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals produced about 2.55 million tons of scope 1 and 2 carbon dioxide emissions in the year leading up to June 30. Bloomberg said the company has implemented a new policy to halt purchases of carbon offset credits from the current fiscal year.  

“We are the only heavy emitter in the world to stop purchasing voluntary offsets,” Dino Otranto, chief executive officer of Fortescue’s metals business, said in a statement. Zero Hedge

The move by Fortescue comes after Shell laid out an updated strategy for the company that included cutting costs and doubling down on profit centers (oil and gas) – which notably shelved the world’s largest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets. 

According to Bloomberg Green’s investigations, many offset programs don’t deliver the promised environmental benefits.

A study by the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy found that REDD+ credits account for a quarter of the carbon offset market. And according to researchers, “Most credits probably don’t represent any climate benefit.” 

The Berkeley findings raise serious questions about the carbon offsets market come months after the world’s leading carbon credit certifier, Verra, sold worthless offsets to major corporations.