Focus on Arts and Ecology

By Heather Lee, February 2, 2023 

A new investigation by The Guardian reveals that forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading provider, Verra, and used by big corporations such as Disney, Shell, Gucci and more, are largely worthless and could make climate change worse. The findings show that 90% of the most commonly used rainforest offset credits do not represent genuine carbon reductions. In fact, three scientific studies that used satellite imagery to evaluate several forest offsetting projects, known as Redd+, found that roughly 94% of the credits the projects produced should not have been approved. These findings raise questions over the growing carbon offsetting market, with many companies now branding their products as carbon neutral without the evidence to back this claim up. This means that companies are capitalizing on these bogus credits to entice citizens to keep on consuming and engaging in environmentally harmful activities, under the guise of so-called carbon neutrality, and steering people from the truly systemic changes that must occur.

For the Earth Minute and Sojourner Truth show, this is Steve from Global Justice Ecology Project.

(Sources: Global Justice Ecology Project)