Will Carbon Offsets Destroy the Planet’s Climate? UPDATED

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Originally. so-called carbon offsets were a laudable attempt to pursue greenhouse gas reductions in voluntary markets.  Companies and individuals had a ‘market’ mechanism to begin the path to lower GHG emissions.

But since then, as states and nations enter agreements to form mandatory emissions markets, offsets are transforming from an interesting market experiment to a big-league loophole in the largest pollution market in the history of mankind.

As Congress debates the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, offsets may be the straw that breaks the climate’s backs.  Waxman-Markey is strong and important “green jobs” and “climate” legislation that should be supported as a historic chance to save the planet.  BUT THE OFFSETS MUST BE REMOVED.

Joe Romm, an official in the Clinton Department of Energy, termed them RIP-OFFSETS is his analysis of last year’s climate legislation at Climate Progress.

In 2025, there are 4392 million metric tons of CO2 (MMTCO2) of allowances. That is a hefty 27% reduction from the current level, which is about 6000 MMTCO2. …….(But)….

A full 30% of the allowances in 2025 can be covered by offsets, which is a stunning 1318 MMTCO2 of allowances.

* oregonj’s diary ::

You read right, in last year’s bill there was a 27% ‘reduction’ in emission allowances by 2025, but a provision to add a 30% level of offsets in the same perid.  So emissions themselves could actually increase 3%, and then we would be depending on so-called RIP-OFFSETS to save the planet.

As Joe Romm has written, “The difference between an offset and a mortgage-backed security is lipstick.”

UPDATE:  To be fair, Joe Romm, who supports this bill like I do, has evaluated the offset provisions in this year’s Waxman bill quite differently than the offset provisions in last year’s Lieberman-Warner bill.  See his post How I Learned to Stop Worrying……

And this year it is even worse in terms of  quantity (gigatons and gigatons of offsets). The proposal in the current Waxman bill sets the limit at 2000 million tons of offsets.  At that even more staggering level of allowances (which equals the capped allowances plus the offsets), it is unlikely that there will be a strong market signal to stop building new coal-fired power plants, let alone phase out older ones.

And if the US continues to build and operate coal-fired power pants, and can’t demonstrate to China and India how to stop, there is virtually no chance the world will avoid catastrophic climate change.

Please call the US Capitol Switchboard at (202-224-3121) and ask your Representative to support Waxman-Markey (HR 2454).  But insist that your Representative and Senators REMOVE THE OFFSET PROVISIONS.

Your planet depends on it.