Jaccard Citizen’s Information – Do carbon offsets cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions?
In this video, Mark Jaccard explains the concept of carbon offsets and discusses whether or not they actually reduce GHG emissions. The short answer is that while offsets may do some good, they may also do a lot of harm if they enable us to delay or avoid decarbonizing our electricity plants, industrial facilities, buildings, vehicles and airplanes. An offset is a payment (a subsidy) by an individual or firm to another individual or firm who claims that the money induces them to reduce emissions, perhaps by not cutting down a forest, or by planting a forest, or by adopting climate-friendly agricultural practices, or by building a hydro-power plant instead of a coal plant. For offsets to reduce emissions (from what they otherwise would have been), we have to know if the person would not have done these things without the offset payment (a double negative alas). But we cannot know that with certainty, and research shows that other subsidy programs to change behavior often have a high percentage of free riders, people who are paid for doing something they would have done anyway. Also, we must be confident that, for example, the newly planted forest will not burn down or that the next government won’t change the law and allow it to be cut down (think Brazilian rainforest). These are the reasons why it is advisable to only recognize offsets that actually extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it back underground where it came from. This leaves us with (1) bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and (2) direct air capture with storage (DACS). These are explained in another video. For more information read “The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success” and visit markjaccard.com.
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