What’s the smarter move: Fixing a flawed carbon market or moving on?

But what’s the smarter move: Fixing a flawed carbon market or moving on?

 
Burn a gallon of gas, protect some trees, and you’re net zero. If only it were that easy.

In recent years, the apparent simplicity of this transaction has been increasingly called into question. In January 2023, the debate culminated in an investigation by the Source Material organization (in collaboration with The Guardian and Die Zeit). Their story, “The Carbon Con,” ignited a media firestorm. Leaning heavily on research that analyzed over 100 million carbon credits for avoided deforestation, researchers calculated that 94 per cent of those credits are likely to be worthless. Other scientists—and a multi-billion dollar carbon credit industry—disagree.

That presents us with a dilemma. Do we double down on offsets, fix the worst mistakes, and accept that some “cons” are worth playing? Or do we put all our decarbonization efforts into the tougher battle of reducing emissions in our daily lives?

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Πηγή: anthropocenemagazine.org