Cheat sheet: Carbon offsetting quality mark
21st February 2008
James Green at BusinessGreen takes a closer look at the government’s controversial attempts to clean up the carbon offset market.
The government have published a code of conduct for offsetting firms and promised to launch a kite mark for those firms that adhere to the code of conduct.
The government has said that the only credits that can carry the quality label have to be officially approved through UN or EU backed processes. That means the huge voluntary market for carbon offsets cannot carry the label and face the risk of being shunned by customers concerned about the provenance of their credits.
There is definitely a case for distinguishing between those credits that have gone through robust third party verification processes, such as the UN’s clean development mechanism (CDM), and those that have only been approved by the companies selling you the credit. However, there are those that argue the CDM excludes many perfectly respectable carbon offset projects that deliver verified and quantifiable emission reductions. These projects, many of which are located in the developing world, are now in danger of being undermined.
