Commenting on the launch event of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), attended by COP26 President Alok Sharma and US Climate Envoy John Kerry, Greenpeace UK’s senior climate adviser Charlie Kronick said:
“No one can disagree that any market in carbon offsets has to be of the “highest integrity”. But forests from the Amazon to Siberia going up in smoke should ring alarm bells even among the most die-hard fans of offsetting. This is an industry that’s never been able to prove that it can deliver on its ambitious promises. If Alok Sharma and John Kerry want this sector to have any “integrity”, they must start by making sure big polluters can never use offsetting in order to carry on pumping megatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Companies must be required to have a laser-like focus on cutting emissions at the source rather than hoping they can somehow be dealt with later. Without that unambiguous rule in place, the COP26 President is now directly undermining the critical goal of keeping global temperature increases limited to 1.5 degrees.”
ENDS
To read more about Greenpeace’s concerns about carbon offsetting, visit here.
