Analysis of the carbon offset projects used by top corporations including Delta, Gucci and ExxonMobil raises concerns around their emission cuts claims

Analysis of the carbon offset projects used by top corporations including Delta, Gucci and ExxonMobil raises concerns around their emission cuts claims

Some of the world’s most profitable – and most polluting corporations – have invested in carbon offset projects that have fundamental failings and are “probably junk”, suggesting industry claims about greenhouse gas reductions were likely overblown, according to new analysis.

Delta, Gucci, Volkswagen, ExxonMobil, Disney, easyJet, and Nestlé are among the major corporations to have purchased millions of carbon credits from climate friendly projects that are “likely junk” or worthless when it comes to offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a classification system developed by Corporate Accountability, a non-profit, transnational corporate watchdog

Some of these companies no longer use CO2 offsets amid mounting evidence that carbon trading do not lead to the claimed emissions cuts – and in some cases may even cause environmental and social harms.

  • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
    35·
    6 months ago

    We knew that when they were buying them. Carbon offsets are just another way to kick the can down the road past the point of no return.

    • cogman@lemmy.world
      30·
      6 months ago

      Worse, they were pure PR. A way for a company to say “look how green we are, we are offsetting all our emissions!”. Which, of course, they did by finding a shady company that “offset” the most for the least amount of money.

      I wonder how many times the same tree was paid for by companies to “offset” their CO2.

      It doesn’t even kick any can down the road. It’s throwing cash at a tree while rolling coal.

      • HubertManne@kbin.social
        4·
        6 months ago

        company. the biggest buyer of credits was the us military. look how green we are by our reports /s.

          • HubertManne@kbin.social
            1·
            6 months ago

            ill add the /s for the last line. though it might be complicated since the military being the biggest user is not the sarcasm but the followup line is.

            • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              When I was in there was always talk about how if you added up all the “saved $XX million by doing Y” it would come out to multiple times the military’s budget. I figured this was the same principle.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    331·
    6 months ago

    Carbon offsets have always been bullshit.

    I don’t know how anyone is still falling for them

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      7·
      6 months ago

      That’s incorrect. There are legitimate offsets, and bullshit ones. Let’s say you have an online business. You can’t control the energy consumption from leased servers, or tell UPS to use electric vehicles for delivery. The only way you can reduce your business’s footprint is by offsetting. By funding alternative energy harnessing devices like solar or wind, even devices that do not directly power your business, there is a measured carbon reduction by the production of those devices that can be subtracted from your business’s footprint. Offsetting like this is recognized by climate scientists as legitimate.

      The bullshit ones have estimated offsets based on experimental averages. Planting trees to combat deforestation, for example, while good for the environment, do not provide a measured reduction to carbon in the atmosphere. Those estimates are not recognized as legitimate offsets by the scientific community, but are widely used in business due to lower cost of implementation.

    • Coasting0942@reddthat.com
      5·
      6 months ago

      They had good salesmen at the start, and not enough market data to show they were bullshit, person in charge of paying wasn’t hired as an environmental officer but is just the niece back from cocaine rehab

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        6 months ago

        They had good salesmen at the start have lobbyists and donate to both parties

        Fixed that for you

        But part of the problem is Republican voters believe anything their politicians say and never hold them accountable, and too many Dem voters have been acting that way too.

        If there’s no pressure to do the right thing, politicians will do what gets them the most money.

        When voters of neither party has any standards, the corpos will do whatever they want.

        A cynic would say that happened decades ago.

        I know it’s been over a decade that I’ve been accused of all sorts of stuff for having more standards than the letter D next to someone’s name.