Carbon offsetting

What is carbon offsetting?

Our everyday actions consume energy and produce carbon dioxide emissions, for example driving a car, heating a home or flying. Offsetting is a way of compensating for the emissions produced with an equivalent carbon dioxide saving. Carbon offsetting involves calculating your emissions and then purchasing ‘credits’ from emission reduction projects. These projects have prevented or removed an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere. Due to the fact that greenhouse gases have a long life-span and tend to mix evenly in the atmosphere it doesn’t matter where gases are emitted in the world: the effect on climate change is the same. To make up for unavoidable emissions increases, e.g. driving to work, equivalent emissions reductions can be made elsewhere, meaning that the overall effect is zero.

What are the benefits of carbon offsetting?

Offsetting is a useful element of what we can all do to address climate change for several reasons:

Providing the means to work out the emissions from our own activities helps raise awareness of our impact on climate change. Combined with reducing our emissions, offsetting can be used to address this impact.
When done in a robust and responsible way, offsetting leads to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the area local to the offsetting project, often in developing countries.
Offsetting projects, such as those approved by the United Nations, provide a mechanism for investment in clean technology in the areas which lack it the most. Such investment can lead to the spread of low-carbon development across entire regions, further reducing climate change impact.

What actions can be offset?

You can offset the fuel used to power and heat your home or office, and you can also offset transport emissions from road, rail and air travel. It can be for a particular action, for example a car journey, or activities over a period of time, for example a person’s annual mileage.

How can I have confidence in offsetting my carbon emissions, whether personally or for my business?

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has introduced a Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting (QAS) aimed at increasing consumers’ understanding of the role of offsetting in tackling climate change and helping them to make informed purchases of good-quality offsets.

The Scheme’s Quality Mark can be used for offsets where it has been shown that they meet the specifications laid out in the Scheme's requirements and procedures document and have been assessed by the Scheme's Approval Body - AEA Group plc. For more information and to view which offsetting schemes have been approved click here.