What's the Problem with Traditional
Carbon Offsetting?
Why do we feel the need to replace carbon offsets with donation-based crowdfunding?
While they can sound great in principle, there are many reasons why carbon offsetting isn’t the answer to the climate crisis. Below we’ve listed a few of the reasons why we believe traditional carbon offsetting should not be used as part of an individuals, or company’s carbon reduction strategy – and how our Innovation Offsets could provide a better solution:
Issues with Offset Project Quality and Effectiveness
Questionable Additionality: Some offset projects claim to prevent emissions or capture carbon, but these projects may have occurred anyway without the offset funding, providing no additional climate benefit.
Permanence Concerns: For projects involving carbon removal, like tree planting, the absorbed carbon is not permanent and can be released back into the atmosphere through wildfires, deforestation, or disease.
Overestimation of Reductions: Studies have shown that many offset projects, particularly those focused on preventing deforestation, significantly overestimate the amount of carbon they are saving.
Lack of Regulation: There are concerns about the absence of robust regulations to accurately measure, verify, and ensure the quality of carbon offsets.
Social and Environmental Impacts
Community Displacement: Some offset projects, such as large-scale forest protection initiatives, have led to the displacement of indigenous and local communities from their lands, causing harm rather than good.
Negative Biodiversity Impacts: Some large-scale reforestation projects, especially those planting monocultures of a single species, can negatively impact local biodiversity and ecosystems.
Inadequacy as a Solution
Focus on Removal vs. Reduction: Critics argue that offsets rely too heavily on carbon removal, which is often slow and temporary, instead of the more critical need to reduce emissions at their source – this is where we hope to achieve a major difference through sustainable innovation.