Boston, MA–Today, Corporate Accountability welcomed the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) release of new research that underscores its hesitancy to condone big corporate polluters’ use of junk carbon offsets as meaningful emissions reductions. The Evidence Synthesis Report Part One: Carbon Credits was issued alongside a statement on findings of the independent systemic review on the back of a series of investigations by media and global experts exposing the multiple failures of carbon offsets. These papers and others released by SBTi this week underscore Corporate Accountability recent analysis of the dangerous distraction from effective climate action that voluntary carbon markets create, and reveal of some of the largest corporate actors in the scam.
Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research & Policy, said, in a statement this morning:
“This development legitimizes what the mounting evidence is increasingly laying bare for all to see– that carbon offsets are no more than a get-out-of-jail-free card for the world’s largest polluters. They have not led to global emissions reductions, do not work effectively at the scale required, and often cause harm to local communities or ecosystems. Given all the evidence–and the decades of time that have been wasted–carbon offsets are no cornerstone of climate action, and it’s encouraging to see the SBTi acting with warranted caution. What is not so encouraging is why world governments and decision-makers continue to pander such a dangerous distraction when the clock of climate action is very nearly up. We need to see climate action plans that mirror the seriousness of the crisis they are meant to address. For a start, this means rapidly reducing emissions at source, eliminating avoidance on technologies and schemes that only shift around rather than permanently reduce emissions, and rapidly and justly shifting off of fossil fuels.”
In advance of its SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standards anticipated later this year, the SBTi appears poised to continue resisting lobbying efforts by carbon market proponents to endorse the broad use of carbon offsets in corporate emissions reductions plans. This development comes on the back of a slew of investigations in the media and among experts that have repeatedly exposed the apparent “junkiness” of many of the world’s largest offsets projects, resulting in a reported 61% decrease in the voluntary carbon market last year. Corporate Accountability will release new findings this fall that will continue to expose the myriad of ways carbon offsets and the global voluntary carbon market is riddled with junk. Please reach out if you’d like to discuss this research, or ways our analysis can lend to related stories you may be developing.
