Offset carbon without greenwashing

How to ensure the high quality and true climate impact of carbon offsets?

For offsetting to truly make a difference, it must be done well. Compensate has evaluated over 170 nature-based carbon projects, and 90% of these projects fail our criteria that go beyond international standards (e.g. Gold Standard, Verra). There are high quality carbon credits available in the market but finding these requires hard work, expertise, and critical thinking.

In this guide, we present a checklist for companies that are purchasing carbon offsetting. Only projects that have a true climate impact can be used in companies’ climate and offset claims - anything else can be considered as greenwashing. There are, for example, these kinds of challenges with carbon credits:

• The potential deforestation threat in protected areas can be based on intentionally exaggerated predictions
• The uncertainties related to carbon projects haven't been mitigated with risk diversification and/or overcompensation
• The predicted future climate impact of the project is unsure. For example, we cannot know what will happen to trees that have been planted today.
• The project is harmful to human rights, biodiversity, or the environment
• The stability of the carbon sink or storage is not long enough

This guide helps you to understand what kind of offsetting has a true climate impact by presenting 7 characteristics of carbon credits that should be taken into account before purchasing carbon offsets.