“Double selling” of Climate Benefits

PRESS RELEASE – September 5th 2007

Offset Carbon Credits May Involve “double selling” of Climate Benefits, say Scientists

Scientists have warned that some “carbon credits” currently being sold via TradeMe do not necessarily allow purchasers to claim to be “greenhouse gas neutral”.

Euan Mason, Piers Maclaren, and Justin Ford-Robertson have expressed surprise that some of the “carbon credits” being sold via the Trademe website are attracting high prices. “Selling offset credits is selling something twice”, says Euan Mason, Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury. “Real carbon credits are produced by people who actually extract greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere by growing forests or by storing them underground. Some ‘credits’ being sold on TradeMe are produced by an enterprise claiming that by generating energy with a wind farm it is avoiding having to emit GHGs. I applaud GHG-neutral energy generation, and enterprises that do this can claim to be GHG neutral without having to buy real credits from those who actually remove GHGs from the atmosphere. Selling their so-called ‘credits’ to offset emissions from other enterprises, however, means that either the power company can no longer claim to be GHG neutral or that the purchasers are not really GHG neutral”.

The irrationality of “offset” credits can be clearly seen by considering a power company that produces 1000 megawatts by burning coal. If that same company generated a further 1000 megawatts from a wind farm then the flawed “logic” of “offset” credits would allow it to retain its wind-power “carbon credits” and claim that those credits cancelled out its continuing generation from coal and that its entire operation was GHG neutral. “This is nonsense”, says Mason.

Scientist and consultant Piers Maclaren has been heavily involved in setting Kyoto treaty policies and is widely known for his expertise on climate change issues. “Every snake-oil dealer and cattle rustler is being lured into town by the prospect of carbon credits. It’s a rort. We need someone to police this stuff. As commendable as a wind farm is, just how is it supposed to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere? How is it even supposed to reduce emissions? Where is the coal-powered generator that it is replacing? And, in the absence of a superfluous coal-powered plant, how do you accurately calculate the credits?”, says Piers.

Climate change policy analyst Justin Ford-Robertson says, “If we are serious about reducing our contribution to the atmosphere it would be much simpler and more effective to merely apply a financial instrument that penalises every unit of emissions to and reward every unit removed from the atmosphere. People could understand this and maybe this would encourage them to take action.”