Publication Name

THE CYCLE – OFFSET

KICK THE HABIT

161

for the same offset.) Registries also clarify ownership of offsets. A serial

number is assigned to each verified offset. When an offset is sold, the serial

number and “credit” for the reduction is transferred from the account of the

seller to an account for the buyer. If the buyer “uses” the credit by claiming

it as an offset against their own emissions, the registry retires the serial

number so that the credit cannot be resold.

A cheap way to wash off your sins?

Offsetting can claim several pluses. It raises people’s awareness of the is-

sue, promotes sustainable technologies (e.g. through funding for renewable

energy projects), and can offer development benefits to local communities.

Above all, it reduces GHG emissions, if done correctly. But there are also

inescapable drawbacks, and offsetting has some determined opponents. It

is a cheap and easy way to salve your conscience without actually doing

anything at all, they argue. If you can simply pay a little for the promise

of future climate innocence, it will do nothing to persuade you to cut your

emissions radically in the here and now. Even if the overall amount of emis-

sions is reduced by the offsets, structures that are linked to the emissions

generated in the first place remain without improvement (for example inef-

ficient public transport systems). Inequality between those who can afford

to emit and those who cannot is yet another criticism that offset supporters

have to face. Carbon Trade Watch

describes

offsets as “modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon-con-

scious public to absolve their climate sins.”

And what about future value accounting? This arises when you are sold

an offset today which will actually take some time to act before the emis-

sions are reduced. This can lead to a buyer thinking wrongly that they have

already offset their emissions. And the longer the project takes to make the

reduction, the more chance there is of something going wrong, with the

offset perhaps never actually being achieved.

To counter these arguments, supporters of offsets argument that compared

to indulgences, offsets are more than just useless promises on paper; they

actually do help in saving the climate. And given that there are binding

emissions targets in place, rising prices for offsets resulting from both, in-

creasing demand as well as growing economic development, cutting our