Carbon trading

[holwellcourtfarm]

Carbon credit speculators could lose billions as offsets deemed worthless

Many credits in the voluntary market going unused, with study finding some offsetting could make global heating worse

www.theguardian.com

Carbon credit speculators could lose billions as scientific evidence shows many offsets they have bought have no environmental worth and have become stranded assets.

Amid growing evidence that huge numbers of carbon credits do nothing to mitigate global heating and can sometimes be linked to alleged human rights concerns, there is a growing pile of carbon credits equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, the world’s fifth largest polluter, that are unused in the unregulated voluntary market, according to market analysis.

 

[Muddyroads]

Carbon credit speculators could lose billions as offsets deemed worthless

Many credits in the voluntary market going unused, with study finding some offsetting could make global heating worse

www.theguardian.com

Carbon credit speculators could lose billions as scientific evidence shows many offsets they have bought have no environmental worth and have become stranded assets.

Amid growing evidence that huge numbers of carbon credits do nothing to mitigate global heating and can sometimes be linked to alleged human rights concerns, there is a growing pile of carbon credits equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, the world’s fifth largest polluter, that are unused in the unregulated voluntary market, according to market analysis.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

This piece sets out the issues with offsetting well. In fact, it makes it seem a basket case!

I am concerned though that it clumps all natural sequestration approaches together when sequestering carbon before the plough horizon could actually be pretty robust.

Carbon offsets aren’t helping the planet — four ways to fix them

Pricing credits according to how much carbon is removed, for how long and how reliably, would direct funding to the most effective climate solutions.

www.nature.com

Quotes that stand out to me:

Even with full decarbonization, billions of tonnes of CO2 will need to be locked away each year — a tonnage equivalent to all of the food or concrete produced in the world annually.

First, at least 90% of the offsets traded3 in the voluntary market are not for removing carbon at all, but for avoiding its release. Foresters, for example, are paid to not chop down trees. These offsets do little to lower CO2 levels in the air and should be replaced with those that facilitate proper removal

A globally consistent framework needs to be designed for monitoring, reporting and verifying offsets so that it is possible to judge the durability of carbon-removal measures and any side effects or unintended consequences.

Interim instruments that might be explored include ‘blended removal’ offsets, where short-term, readily available options, such as increasing soil carbon, are combined with longer-term, long-duration methods, which would take over in time.

 

[B R C]

I think the first stage would be to know your own carbon footprint, we are getting an audit done via our cluster group so that will be interesting and can go from there. I think it would be morally wrong to sell carbon credits when you should be using it against your own business. As said you may need them in the future anyway so you could get in a right pickle if you sell them now.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

You may all find this science note from the British Society of Soil Science worth a scan through on Soil carbon:


https://soils.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BSSS_Science-Note_Soil-Carbon_Final_May22_75YRS_DIGITAL.pdf

And another important one: https://soils.org.uk/wp-content/upl...3_Soil-Carbon-Stocks_FINAL-DIGITAL_300623.pdf

Both taken from here: https://soils.org.uk/education/guidance-and-science-notes/

 

[onesiedale]

@Dr Renuka Thakore please read post above ^^