"In practice, it's difficult to ensure that they represent real emissions reductions rather than 'hot air', with the claimed climate benefits existing only on paper. Equally challenging is ensuring that emission reductions are 'additional', meaning that they would not have occurred without the incentive provided by the sale of carbon credits. For projects credited for sequestering carbon, it is also crucial to ensure that the CO 2 is locked away permanently and not released back into the atmosphere later."
"Thus, offsets undermine decarbonization by enabling companies and countries to claim that emissions have been reduced when they have not. This results in more emissions, delays the phase-out of fossil fuels and diverts scarce resources to false solutions. Yet, climate-policy processes continue to rely on them. The operationalization of Article 6 of the Paris agreement and full implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, both achieved in 2024, are set to turbocharge demand for carbon credits."
Achieving the Paris temperature targets requires deep, rapid cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions and the swift phase-out of fossil fuels. Carbon offsets are tradable credits from projects claiming to avoid emissions or remove CO2, and are used by businesses and countries to neutralize their emissions. Most offset schemes fail to guarantee real, additional, and permanent reductions, producing 'hot air' and enabling greenwashing. This leakage increases actual emissions, delays fossil-fuel phase-out, and diverts resources to ineffective solutions. Recent operationalization of Article 6 and implementation of the aviation offset scheme in 2024 will boost demand for credits while domestic carbon-pricing and voluntary markets expand offset use despite weak assurances.
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