[irtf-discuss] Companies are buying up cheap carbon offsets − data suggest it may be more about greenwashing than helping the climate

[Hesham ElBakoury <[e-mail]>]

This article is published today [1] which is based on the paper that Sehhon
Kim (University of Florida) coauthored about *Carbon Offsets:
Decarbonization or Transition-Washing* [2]. In the authors analysis
they examined 866 publicly traded companies that used offsets between 2005
and 2021.

The authors of this paper found that "large firms with a high percentage of
big institutional investors and commitments to reach net-zero emissions are
particularly active in voluntary carbon markets."

Their results also reveal a peculiar pattern: "Industries with relatively
low emissions, such as services and financial industries, are much more
intensive in their use of offsets. Some used offsets for almost all of the
emissions cuts they claimed. In contrast, high-emissions industries, such
as oil and gas, utilities or transportation, used negligible amounts of
offsets compared to their heavy carbon footprints."
Hesham

[1]
https://theconversation.com/companies-are-buying-up-cheap-carbon-offsets-data-suggest-it-may-be-more-about-greenwashing-than-helping-the-climate-238973

[2] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4762799