Carbon credits: Can they be fixed? | Climate Impact Platform Webinar #3

Most countries, institutions, companies and individuals will continue to generate greenhouse gas emissions through their activities even as the world decarbonizes, meaning many are choosing to compensate for these ‘residual’ emissions. The most common approach for doing so is to purchase carbon credits.

The world’s forests store an estimated 861 billion tonnes of carbon—equivalent to approximately 100 years’ worth of anthropogenic emissions, at current rates—and with good husbandry could potentially store up to 226 billion tonnes more. Clearly, preserving and repairing forests is a vital element of mitigating climate breakdown. But, worldwide, forests are under threat, and financial and political incentives to clear land can often defeat attempts at regulation. One answer is to transfer some of the global benefits of preservation to forest communities, paying them to preserve the forest they would otherwise have cleared and thus preserving the forest while compensating communities for foregone income.

This is (forest) carbon offsetting – and it is failing.

Yale Environmental Economist Professor Rohini Pande will explain why in this exploratory webinar, the third in our series highlighting important areas of climate research that CGIAR does not yet work on extensively.

Dr Danny Cullenward, from the Institute of Carbon Removal Law and Policy, American University, Washington, DC, and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, will then weigh in on how and why carbon offsets are currently incompatible with the Paris Agreements, offering his views on carbon market design and oversight.

As always, we encourage participation and would love for you to express your ideas and concerns on carbon offsetting, as well as ask any of our expert speakers probing questions.