A recent study says that most of the carbon offsets for rainforests that “Verra” offers are “worthless.” Verra is a non-profit group that runs the best carbon crediting program in the world.
Carbon offsets that are “not so effective” are a way for big companies to show that they plan to fight against climate change. But in reality, these promises don’t slow down the rate at which carbon emissions are rising.
The Guardian’s recent analysis report, which came out on Wednesday, looks into this issue and shows the truth about the carbon industry. A team of skilled journalists looked into the case for nine months and looked at the data collected by international scientists in order to draw a conclusion.
When Verra’s rainforest carbon credit pedagogies were looked into and analyzed, some interesting facts came to light. It was found that the offsets didn’t have any effect on reducing deforestation or making the climate better.
To make a carbon credit, a way must be found to keep a part of the rainforest from being turned into barren land and keep it from being destroyed. The protected area is the same size as the amount of carbon that these trees can take out of the air. A company can make up for its harmful emissions by buying credits.
Almost all of the carbon offsets that have been approved by Verra are worthless. Most of these credit approvals by the NPO are like “phantom credits,” which have nothing to do with real cuts in carbon emissions. Since 2009, Verra’s carbon standard has been used to approve more than a billion carbon credits.
The team said that the credits helped stop trees from being cut down. The NPO has approved three-quarters of the industry’s voluntary carbon offsets, which are worth $2 billion, and is growing at a very fast rate. Credits approved by Verra have been bought by companies like Gucci, Netflix, BHP, etc.
In response to the study, Verra said on its website that the study came to the wrong conclusions. They also said that the team had recently looked at how it did its calculations again. The group is working to make sure that its methods will be the same in the future.
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