Carbon offset schemes

A number of schemes are currently operating which offer individuals and organisations the opportunity to have trees planted on their behalf with the aim of offsetting emissions of greenhouse gases. An estimate is made of the carbon sequestered over the lifetime of the woodland and this is marketed as a carbon credit to offset emissions resulting from specified activities of an individual or organisation. Concerns have been raised over schemes that award credits in advance of the carbon being sequestered. There is also a question mark over the long-term future of woodlands created for this purpose, because of uncertainties over future land management or the occurrence of natural events such as storms and droughts or the effects of climate change itself. Availability of land for afforestation limits the potential for individuals or organisations to take up these schemes, both in the UK and globally. One of the examples most frequently encountered is that of ‘carbon-neutral car use’. As a rough guide, the carbon sequestered by half a hectare of woodland over one rotation can compensate for the carbon dioxide emissions associated with car fuel consumption during an average driver’s lifetime: this sounds a small area, but it should be borne in mind that with 30 million registered drivers in the UK, three-quarters of the land area of the nation would have to be afforested to make car use alone carbon-neutral.

If you are interested in signing up to a carbon offset scheme, you might want to ask yourself (and those running the scheme) some of these questions:

• Will you be able to locate the area of land and the trees whose carbon belongs to you?
• Is your money only buying you the carbon in the trees, or is it buying you the trees as well? If not, who owns the trees?
• Would the trees have been planted anyway, even if you had not paid for the scheme?
• If the carbon you're buying is in mature trees that already exist, how has the scheme offset the carbon you have emitted?
• How is the carbon offset being calculated? Are you confident that you can trust the calculations and the results?
• Are you buying carbon that the trees will sequester in the near future, or are you receiving advanced credit for the carbon sequestered over a longer period (say 50, 100 years or more)? If so, what if the carbon dioxide you're emitting is all being released now? What guarantees do you have that the woodland will still be there in 100 years ... and longer? (Remember, once you have locked up carbon in the trees, removing the trees will reverse the offset.)
• Will the project deliver other benefits, for example providing renewable wood fuel for local communities, here in the UK or abroad?
• Is the scheme endorsed by a reputable independent organisation such as WWF?