![]() ![]() The mass generation of junk credits doesn't come as a surprise to many in the offsetting industry, with a broker noting that “methodologies have been so flexible that anything goes…ou could choose the best option to maximise your profit.” The investigations found numerous examples of project developers interpreting methodologies in their favour and auditors approving carbon credits based on hugely inflated estimates of how many emissions were avoided. The researchers found that over 90 percent of the credits were based on implausible claims that emissions had been avoided - making them, in the words of the journalists, "a heap of junk". The EU should take the failure of Verra’s business model as an indication of the need to stop promoting offsets as a valid form of climate action.Ī global team of academic researchers assessed 29 projects that claimed to have saved a total of 89 million carbon credits, equivalent to the annual emissions from Greece and Switzerland combined. VCS is administered by Verra, a carbon offset standard developer whose standards underpin 75 percent of all carbon offsets sold on the voluntary carbon market. ![]() The investigations focused on 'avoided deforestation' offsets that have been audited against the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). An investigation by the Dutch independent media outlet Follow The Money underscored the extent of the flaws when it showed how the operator of one of the largest offset projects on the African continent had been allowed to continue to sell offset credits despite the seller knowing the project was overestimating alleged emission avoidance. Less than two months later, an investigation by the German weekly Die Zeit and the UK's Guardian newspaper, with support from the non-governmental organisation (NGO) SourceMaterial showed, yet again, how flawed the voluntary carbon offset market is. In November 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for an European Union (EU) Regulation on certification of activities that remove carbon from the atmosphere ('carbon removals'), which included voluntary minimum standards for companies that certify voluntary carbon offsets.
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