Q: Do I need to purchase offsets to cover air travel?
Recent studies have shown that many offset projects are ineffective or worse. But last I checked, people are still flying. a lot. And the earth is still warming. a lot.
So, you may still be wondering: Should you offset your air travel? If so, how?
What exactly is an offset?
Carbon offsets are credits that you can purchase to offset your emissions. So if you put about 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by flying from New York to San Francisco, you can purchase offsets and, in many cases, put the same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by planting or preserving trees. can fund removal or storage projects in locations. .
At least that's the idea. However, many scientists oppose this principle on the basis that emissions need to be significantly reduced, rather than simply offset.
“Offsetting is a misnomer,” said Barbara Haya, director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at the University of California, Berkeley. “This creates the fiction that you can fly, emit greenhouse gases, and just pay these cheap credits and the impact disappears.”
An estimated $1.7 billion in carbon credits were issued around the world last year, according to an analysis by global accounting firm KPMG.
got it. But do they work?
Companies are working on ways to make carbon credits more reliable. But Dr. Haya has been studying offsets for more than 20 years, and she said the results so far have been grim. “Most credits do not represent the emissions reductions they claim,” she says. Some countries are not seeing any measurable climate benefits.
That's because it's difficult to measure the carbon captured by planting new trees, for example. Was that tree planted in the first place? What happens if the tree later burns down in a wildfire?
John Sterman, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and director of the MIT Climate Pathways Project, likens carbon credits to a Wild West magic cure. “You can put anything in that bottle. And not only might it not work, it might be downright harmful. That's what we're working on with carbon offsetting,” he says. said. “They are deceiving people.”
