ClearAirCoolPlanet - A Consumers Guide to Retail Carbon offset Providers

As public awareness of climate change has increased, consumers have become more interested in carbon-neutral behavior. Although Clean Air-Cool Planet recommends a strategy based around reductions first (through sources such as energy efficiency, technological improvement, and green building), they also recognize the appeal of carbon offsets. With the voluntary market growing, it is valuable for consumers to have access to independent data about the quality of different offsetting practices and providers. Ideally, an offset project would be clearly additional with a calculable baseline, monitored, verified, and quantified to demonstrate reductions, registered to provide a paper trail, permanent, and show clear ownership of reductions. However, offset providers often lack transparency and do not offer information with which consumers can evaluate offset quality. Consumers are suggested to ask retailers specific questions such as whether offsets come from specific reduction projects or more problematic sequestration projects, whether and to what extent the provider can demonstrate additionality, if offsets have been validated against a third-party standard, whether offsets generated in the future are being sold, that offsets are not being sold to multiple buyers, and to what extent there is an climate educational component to the business. The consumers’ guide offers rankings based on seven weighted evaluative criteria: providers’ prioritization of offset quality, buyers’ ability to transparently evaluate offset quality, transparency in provider operations and offset selection, providers’ understanding of the technical aspects of offset quality, providers’ prioritization of consumer education, ancillary environmental and sustainable development benefits of offset portfolios, and use of third-party protocols and certification. The guide also notes that there is no necessary correlation between the price and quality of offsets and that there is no reason to favor non-profit over for-profit providers.