Greenwashing or a Net Zero Necessity? Climate Scientists on Carbon Offsetting

Carbon offsets can help achieve emissions goals, some experts argue, while others say they are actively dangerous

To offset or not to offset? We asked three prominent climate scientists what they think of the murky world of offsetting.

Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and chief scientist at Conservation International, which manages a number of carbon offsetting projects, says that offsetting can be valuable but only if companies are already cutting their carbon emissions by at least half each decade, from now to reaching net zero in 2050. They can buy offsets as an additional effort, beyond those reductions, but the offsets cannot be used as a substitute for those stringent emission-reduction requirements.

Rockström told the Guardian: “On the one hand, carbon offsetting is necessary, and has positive potentials of providing incentives and thereby generating much-needed investments, for example in nature climate solutions [such as forests]. On the other hand, there is a large risk of misuse of offsetting, if used (as often is the case) to compensate for the inability to follow the scientifically defined mitigation pathway.” He argues that a sound pathway requires cutting emissions by half each decade. This is now the requirement of the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), which certifies whether companies are in line with the Paris agreement.