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Hi,

Carbon offsetting

I can’t agree more with all of the sentiments expressed by Kevin Smith of the Transnational Institute / Carbon Trade Watch. An unregulated and rather ‘wild-west’ offset industry has sprung up that has cool celebrities jumping on a band wagon. Many schemes are badly implemented and it is open to misuse. I am sure that for most people in the offset business this is far from intentional but it does offer opportunities to the unscrupulous. Worst of all with the existing state of affairs it is easy to perceive carbon trading and offsetting as perpetuating the global capitalist systems that has got us into the mess.

There is money to be made in this game of indulgences for climate sins. Whether it is comparable to Enron style is debateable. Enron collapsed because it had a balance sheet and profit forecasts based on thin air. Future value accounting in that business was a criminal activity. Future value accounting for saved carbon tonnes is also dodgy but hardly illegal unless done with the intent to deceive. However, let’s assume integrity, what is the penalty if carbon savings don’t turn up, if the wind turbine doesn’t produce electricity? Red faces yes, and money removed from polluters and wasted - a failed investment. (What would they have consumed with it instead?)

But let’s push the analogy of indulgences for climate sins a little further and take up Kevin’s challenge to look at this phenomenon systemically and historically. The practice of selling indulgences to wipe away sins was rife in the early 16th century: "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs". It was certainly a neat idea to raise some cash – selling words on a piece of paper as peace of mind; it was totally corrupt and was partly responsible for the rise of Protestantism and a major schism in the church. It was eventually reformed - try buying an indulgence today and a priest will tell you clearly that you can’t expurgate your climate sins with money you need to change your lifestyle … but if you have got some spare cash here is our collection tin for the work we do in the fight for justice in Africa. Times change as time changes.

Changed times is where we have to get to - offset organisations rattling the tin for donations towards work that will alter our lifestyles, fund new structures in our society and press for political change … and Gift Aid on donations please.

Of course the real issue is to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground. We have to change almost every aspect of our lives and our society to do this. There is no argument with Kevin Smith saying: ‘The only effective way of dealing with climate change is to dramatically decrease our current rates of fossil fuel consumption.’ But what is the way? The answer given is: “collective political action needs to be taken to tackle climate change and we need to promote more effective and empowering approaches.” Again, no argument, lead on, but how do we collect, promote and empower? Well carbon offsetting might be the way. Is this heresy? Let’s get in there, get the money from polluters who care and use it to damn well promote and empower.

Concluding thoughts

There is a long way to go and we need critics like Carbon Trade Watch.

The offset industry needs substantial “cleaning up” and regulating – a process that has started.

Offset projects need a full and thorough environmental and social impact assessment - don’t condemn mistakes, learn from them.

Environmental and social justice movements need to do more systems thinking and longer term visioning.

Working and transforming the structures and artefacts of a system is the system.

Sometimes to get to a higher peak often means descending into a boggy valley.

Don’t tear down the scaffolding just because it isn’t the final building.

Move away from classifying our high-carbon lifestyles as committing sins – guilt is so negative.

Criticism please

With all this in mind I would like to invite criticism about something we are helping to build:

The Converging World (TCW) is new charity, the seed for which was a village project called Go Zero, it is based on the principle of Contraction & Convergence. It is creating a second generation carbon reduction scheme that addresses the criticisms raised against carbon offsetting.

We are approaching large businesses and wealthy individuals to become donors so that we can erect wind turbines in India near to where our partner organisation called Social Change And Development (SCAD) operate (www.scadindia.org ). The surplus income from the electricity generated is spent on sustainable livelihood projects with SCAD while the carbon credits are available back here in the UK.

We are inviting businesses and individuals to become members of TCW and in return for donations we will retire carbon credits - if requested. This allows individuals and businesses to claim that they are offsetting or even carbon neutral. However, we expect a high degree of participation by our members in carbon reduction and we provide services to achieve this.

The money raised this way by membership in the UK is called the Sustainable Community Fund, which is directed to larger scale carbon reduction projects in the UK, projects like renewable energy installations or social change with a ‘green’ tinge. We would like many community groups, such as Go Zero, to become affiliated to TCW and the fund will support them with resources, networking and the exchange of ideas – empowering them. Community groups will be invited to apply for money for their own projects that may exceed their capacity to fund themselves.

The concept is based on Contraction & Convergence and although it seems complicated it has been described as ‘elegant’ and ‘beautiful’, so we are hoping that we might be on the right track.

The people behind this have been engaged with environmental and social issues for many years and are dedicated to a bright and joyful future for all.

So the questions are:

How to evaluate what we are proposing, are we on the right track?

Are there any aspects of this scheme that appear inadequate or ill thought through?

Should the offset industry evolve into this model or should we kill it off because it is corrupt, greenwashing and a desperate attempt to perpetuate the status quo?

Many thanks if you can help with any thoughts.

Best wishes

Ian Roderick

Schumacher Institute

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Keene
Sent: 21 February 2007 01:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Fwd: The Carbon Neutral Myth - Offset, Indulgences for your Climate Sins]]

Transnational Institute

Press Release

20 February, 2007

Carbon offset companies using Enron style accounting

While the UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into the carbon

offsets industry hears it first evidence today, a new report by Carbon Trade

Watch shows that the carbon offset industry is using the same sort of ‘future

value accounting’ that caused the collapse of energy giant Enron.

When companies like Climate Care and the Carbon Neutral Company sell the public

carbon offsets, carbon savings expected to be made in the future are counted as

savings made in the present. This is known as ‘future value accounting’ and is

the same technique used by Enron to inflate its profits with such disastrous

consequences. Offset companies give the idea that emissions are

instantly ‘neutralised’ when in fact the supposed ‘neutralisation’ can take

place over periods of up to a hundred years. Regular offsetting worsens the

problem because the rate at which carbon emissions are ‘neutralised’ is far

slower than the rate at which they are generated.

The Carbon Neutral Myth – Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins, launched

today by Carbon Trade Watch, a project of the Amsterdam-based Transnational

Institute, draws on extensive research and case studies to argue that:

· Offset companies breed complacency by selling ‘peace of mind’ to

consumers, offering up a form of ‘greenwash’ that distracts from the serious

task of tackling unsustainable consumption patterns and business practices

· Limited research on the climate benefits of tree plantations into the

carbon cycle is sold as fact while the offset companies quantify this supposed

benefit into a sellable commodity.

· Tree plantations marketed as beneficial for the climate have seen

people in the South expelled from their lands.

· Projects that look great on the website or in the leaflet are often, in

practice, mismanaged, ineffective or detrimental to the local communities who

have to endure them.

The report’s author, Kevin Smith, said that ‘The only effective way of dealing

with climate change is to dramatically decrease our current rates of fossil

fuel consumption. Offsets are providing a justification to maintain our carbon-

intensive lifestyles, and delaying the profound changes we need to make in our

societies.’

Jutta Kill from the organisation FERN, who is today giving evidence to the UK

parliament Environmental Audit Committee said that ‘Government proposals to

regulate offset companies misleadingly give the impression that there are bad

offsets and good offsets. The fact is that all offset projects are sanctioning

further fossil fuel use, and in doing so are a dangerous distraction from

tackling climate change.’

The full report The Carbon Neutral Myth – Offset Indulgences for your Climate

Sins is available online at:

www.carbontradewatch.org/pubs/carbon_neutral_myth.pdf and www.tni.org

For more information:

Kevin Smith, Transnational Institute, +44 207 700 7972

[log in to unmask]

Jutta Kill, FERN, +44 7931 576538 [log in to unmask]

"Carbon offsets are the modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon

conscious public to absolve their climate sins. Scratch the surface, however,

and a disturbing picture emerges, where creative accountancy and elaborate

shell games cover up the impossibility of verifying genuine climate change

benefits, and where communities in the South often have little choice as offset

projects are inflicted on them.

This report argues that offsets place disproportionate emphasis on individual

lifestyles and carbon footprints, distracting attention from the wider,

systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken to

tackle climate change. Promoting more effective and empowering approaches

involves moving away from the marketing gimmicks, celebrity endorsements,

technological quick fixes, and the North/South exploitation that the carbon

offsets industry embodies."

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