Good points, but I would go further, having worked in this field both with meteorologists and politicals.
Individual Offsets are easier than behaviour change to do, so a handy sop to guilty conscience of middle class people, who want to keep driving and flying, so perfect for self-deception.
Thus offsets at individual and local level = advanced greenwash, wrapped up as an environmental project.
In fact, most offsets are deeply flawed and many, particularly renewable energy projects (which may help with health and education and have many other justifications) lead to INCREASED emissions—as they tend to lead to purchases of electrical goods, and so a huge increase in energy use locally and in the countries manufacturing the goods, even with reducing carbon intensity.
The best destinations for carbon funds probably include wetland protection in semi-arid regions (see my own www.theglobalcoolingproject.com) or climate campaign groups eg EIA for their HCFC work on the Montreal/Kigali protocols or anyone working on aircraft emissions or in India/China or on combating denialism or bridging political divides (eg George Marshall from Climate Outreach).
Good points, but I would go further, having worked in this field both with meteorologists and politicals.
Individual Offsets are easier than behaviour change to do, so a handy sop to guilty conscience of middle class people, who want to keep driving and flying, so perfect for self-deception.
More here: www.rationalreflection.net/can-we-offset-immorality
Thus offsets at individual and local level = advanced greenwash, wrapped up as an environmental project.
In fact, most offsets are deeply flawed and many, particularly renewable energy projects (which may help with health and education and have many other justifications) lead to INCREASED emissions—as they tend to lead to purchases of electrical goods, and so a huge increase in energy use locally and in the countries manufacturing the goods, even with reducing carbon intensity.
The best destinations for carbon funds probably include wetland protection in semi-arid regions (see my own www.theglobalcoolingproject.com) or climate campaign groups eg EIA for their HCFC work on the Montreal/Kigali protocols or anyone working on aircraft emissions or in India/China or on combating denialism or bridging political divides (eg George Marshall from Climate Outreach).