Climate change & energy

Climate change: Carbon offsetting

Vapour trails from an aeroplaneWhat is carbon offsetting?

Our everyday actions consume energy and produce carbon dioxide emissions, for example driving a car, heating a home or flying. Offsetting is a way of compensating for the emissions produced with an equivalent carbon dioxide saving.

Carbon offsetting involves calculating your emissions and then purchasing ‘credits’ from emission reduction projects. These projects have prevented or removed an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere.

Due to the fact that greenhouse gases have a long life-span and tend to mix evenly in the atmosphere it doesn’t matter where gases are emitted in the world: the effect on climate change is the same. To make up for unavoidable emissions increases, e.g. heating your home, equivalent emissions reductions can be made elsewhere, meaning that the overall effect is zero.

Will carbon offsetting solve climate change?

We acknowledge that carbon offsetting is not a cure for climate change but it can help raise awareness and reduce the impact of our actions. The most appropriate action to take is to reduce emissions.

Offsetting is a useful element of what we can all do to address climate change for several reasons:

  • Providing the means to work out the emissions from our own activities helps raise awareness of our impact on climate change. Combined with reducing our emissions, offsetting can be used to address this impact.
  • When done in a robust and responsible way, offsetting leads to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the area local to the offsetting project, often in developing countries.
  • Offsetting projects, such as those approved by the United Nations, provide a mechanism for investment in clean technology in the areas which lack it the most. Such investment can lead to the spread of low-carbon development across entire regions, further reducing climate change impact.

How can I have confidence in offsetting my carbon emissions, whether personally or for my business?

Government is working on establishing a voluntary Code of Best Practice for the provision of carbon offsetting to consumers. The purpose of establishing a Code is to ensure consumer confidence in an emerging market and continued growth of that market through that confidence.

The Secretary of State announced the framework for the Code of Best Practice for Carbon Offsetting on 19 February 2008.

What is the government doing to offset its carbon emissions?

All central government official and ministerial air travel is offset by purchasing credits that meet strict international standards in terms of the certification and monitoring of emission reductions.

The projects used are all located in developing countries, are small-scale and involve renewable energy and/or energy efficiency. The Government is also looking at the role carbon offsetting might play in the commitment for the Government office estate to go carbon neutral by 2012.

See: Government emissions

See also:

Page last modified: 19 February 2008
Page published: 03 October, 2005

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs