Monday 1 February 2021

Carbon offsetting: ‘greenwash pure and simple’

Offsetting projects simply don’t deliver what we need – a reduction in the carbon emissions entering the atmosphere.
Offsetting schemes provide a good story that allows companies to swerve away from taking meaningful action on their carbon emissions.

But would you believe it? LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – is against carbon offsetting too, apparently. 

The company's chief sustainability officer is quoted in the article "Carbon offsetting: How are businesses avoiding greenwashing on the road to net-zero?" The article starts by saying:
With the net-zero movement gathering pace, ever more businesses are turning to carbon offsetting to tackle hard-to-abate emissions. But is this a credible choice, or simply a clever greenwashing tactic?
Never one to miss an opportunity to sing the green credentials of LafargeHolcim – the world's largest cement company with CO2 emissions to match – the officer, in a panel discussion during Day One of edie’s Net-Zero Live 2020, said:
... she is "completely against" using offsetting before reducing emissions, as industry must "fix its own problems"
Bravo. Who could disagree? She goes on:
"Offsetting is a very last resort, to be used once everything else has been done," she said, pointing to the fact that the SBTi won’t verify targets in line with 1.5C unless they involve at least a 4.2% year-on-year reduction, every year, without offsetting. More broadly, the CCC has advised the UK Government that no more than 5% of emissions should be offset internationally on the road to net-zero.
Of course, there’s a tweet to go with it:


But if that is indeed the case, why – as we previously posted – is LafargeHolcim’s UK subsidiary bragging about its carbon credentials in Highways England’s A590 M6 J36 resurfacing project, where the only reason it could boast about "the UK’s first carbon-neutral pavement scheme" was because it had used carbon offsetting to cover 57% of the emissions?
In an industry first... Aggregate Industries purchased a number of credits to offset the remaining carbon on the scheme.
Or is this yet another example of LafargeHolcim claiming one thing and doing another?


And before Aggregate Industries gets carried away, making even more history, let's also remember that the Mineral Products Association – the trade association representing Aggregate Industries and friends – is against carbon offsetting too. Or so they tell us:
The UK concrete and cement industry has developed a roadmap to beyond net zero by 2050 – removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits each year... 
Importantly, the roadmap does not rely upon carbon offsetting or offshoring emissions…
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