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ABSTRACT
From Big Tech to Oil Majors, companies are increasingly resorting to the voluntary purchase of carbon credits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions and make claims about their carbon neutrality. Yet, the credibility of offsetting as a solution to climate change remains contested. From the outset, that is, since the mid-2000s, the voluntary carbon markets have been criticised, as we discuss in this commentary, which stems from our long-standing interest in the social study of carbon markets. Drawing on interviews conducted with offset suppliers and buyers, we examine some of the ways in which the issue of quality (or the lack of) has come to be a central concern in the voluntary offsetting markets.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Stéphanie Barral for her comments on an earlier version of this paper, as well as two anonymous and the editors of the journal. A first draft was discussed in a seminar of the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London and we would like to thank the seminar's participants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See Google’s sustainability commitment here: https://sustainability.google/commitments-europe/#leading-at-google (last 12 February 2022).
2 See https://www.myclimate.org/information/carbon-offset-projects/, last accessed 12.02.22.
3 The head of Greenpeace was invited to talk in the session “Demystifying Net Zero: Towards a Playbook for Action”, https://www.weforum.org/events/sustainable-development-impact-summit-2021/sessions/demystifying-net-zero-standards, last accessed 19.09.22
4 A Greenpeace activist more bluntly called offsetting “a scam,” arguing that buying carbon credits is no more than a “bookkeeping trick” (Greenberg Citation2021).
5 While we seek to highlight some general trends, we talk about the voluntary carbon markets using the plural form to acknowledge the diversity of projects, prices, certification standards, suppliers, purchase motives and types of transaction that fall under the term offsetting, as well as the lack of a single marketplace.
6 We both worked on carbon offsetting for our doctoral research and have since followed on and off what is happening in these markets (see reference Ehrenstein and Muniesa Citation2013; Ehrenstein Citation2018; Valiergue Citation2019, Citation2021). The interviews cited in this paper were done by the first author who conducted a total 127 interviews with market players mostly between 2012 and 2017.
7 Political ecologists have documented the darker realities of offsetting projects (on “carbon colonialism” see Bumpus and Liverman Citation2011). This scholarship now counts many case studies, such as Asiyanbi (Citation2016), Nel (Citation2017) and Miles (Citation2021), to cite only a few recent examples.
8 World Bank analysts started publishing reports on the carbon markets in 2003, focusing on the so-called regulatory or compliance markets like the CDM. The World Bank greatly contributed to make the CDM operational by setting up funds to purchase credits on behalf of governments and developing methods to quantify the emissions reductions of different classes of projects (Lecoq and Ambrosi Citation2007).
9 Those meetings are now convened under the banner of Innovate4Climate: https://www.innovate4climate.com/. Last accessed 15.09.2022.
10 See “Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Methodologies” and “Become a VVB” on Verra’s website available, respectively, at: https://verra.org/methodology/cdm-methodologies/ and https://verra.org/project/vcs-program/validation-verification/become-a-vvb/, last accessed 15.09.2022.
11 See “Land Use activities + Nature Based solutions” on Gold Standard’s website available at: https://www.goldstandard.org/our-story/sector-land-use-activities-nature-based-solutions; last accessed 14.09.2022.
12 Employee, for nonprofit offset producer and retailer, 22.11.2012.
13 Employee, for nonprofit offset producer and retailer, 26.01.2013.
14 See Jennifer Morgan’s intervention starting 38:26: https://www.weforum.org/events/sustainable-development-impact-summit-2021/sessions/demystifying-net-zero-standards, last accessed 19.09.22.
15 Portfolio manager, offsetting company, 21.08.2014.
16 Portfolio manager, offsetting company, 21.08.2014.
17 This storytelling is reminiscent of humanitarian campaigns, while in other cases it may echo Fair Trade marketing (see Howard et al. Citation2016).
18 See the Project Design Document forms on Verra’s website : https://verra.org/project/vcs-program/rules-and-requirements/; accessed 15.09.2022.
19 Based on our estimates, the cost of running the activity (e.g. manufacturing and distributing cookstoves) might just represent half the total cost of production of certified offsets.
20 At least four interviewees mention Kenya as being an explicit choice because it would reduce the costs of implementation.
21 Monitoring officer, offsetting company, 24.06.2014.
22 CEO, offsetting company, 27.01.2014.
23 Informal discussion with the french project manager, field notes, June 2014.
24 Portfolio manager, offsetting company, 17.06.2014.
25 Project manager, producer, 30.04.2014
26 Employee, for profit offset producer and retailer, 12.09.2012
27 Sustainability officer, bank, 18.03.2014.
28 See Rob Cameron’s intervention: https://www.weforum.org/events/sustainable-development-impact-summit-2021/sessions/demystifying-net-zero-standards.
29 Field notes at a sustainable development fair, Paris, 16 September 2021.
30 See the platform on the following link: https://vcmintegrity.org/about/; last access 19.09.2022
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alice Valiergue
Dr Alice Valiergue is postdoctoral researcher in sociology at Sciences Po. She carried out her PhD research on the carbon offset market at the Center for the Sociology of Organizations (CNRS-Sciences Po Paris).
Véra Ehrenstein
Dr Véra Ehrenstein is a full time sociologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Her research is concerned with the relationship between science and policy in the face of climate change.