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Like any emerging business, carbon offsetting has attracted its fair share of cowboys. So to make sure that the best schemes are more than just hot air, the UK government has this week published a draft code of practice that it will develop over the next six months. Typical carbon offsetting projects include planting trees and renewable energy -- and schemes that meet the government's criteria will be awarded a quality mark.
"It's important that consumers who want to buy carbon offsets with confidence can do just that. When a consumer buys a tonne of carbon with the government's quality mark, they'll know they're buying a full tonne of carbon," says Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.
The government has appointed the AEA group as the accreditation body for the scheme. It proposes that the cost for initial accreditation is £4,500 with an annual renewal fee of £2,000.
Carbon offsetting schemes will need to meet six criteria: additionality, meaning that the carbon savings must be in addition to reductions that would be made anyway; avoiding carbon leakage, so that emissions avoided are not simply moved elsewhere; permanence, to ensure that emissions reductions are not simply put off until later; verification systems for emissions reductions; transparency on the methodologies and procedures used; and avoiding double counting to ensure that emissions counted in an offset product are not counted elsewhere.
Although carbon offsetting has attracted criticism for being a fig leaf over big carbon polluters, it can play an important part where carbon emissions are unavoidable. The UK government-backed scheme will first cover carbon offsetting products that use credits compliant with the standards set out at Kyoto, but it will consider opening it up to other high-quality voluntary offsetting products. Kyoto credits are designed to allow consumer to trace their offset credits back to the projects that have generated them.
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