Carbon Offsets, More Fraud?

A sign of potential fraud in the carbon offset market, British airline EasyJet has delayed the lunch of it carbon offsetting scheme. The reasoning for this delay is they have found that the carbon offset market is riddled with “snake oil salesmen”.

“Toby Nicol, EasyJet's communications director, said the company had been shocked by how much money carbon offsetting firms wanted for their service.”We have been quite surprised at the percentage that the offsetting companies would like to take out of the scheme for administration costs. Between 25% and 30% of every pound put in by consumers would go into administrating the company and that was simply too expensive," he said.

There are a lot of people who have dived into the market who are desperate to make a margin from it. There are too many snake oil salesmen in the business.”

Has EasyJet given up on the carbon offsetting market? No, EasyJet is going to buy UN-backed carbon credits on the open market at about 7.50 British pounds per ton, with a launch date sometime this summer. Lets be honest here, the UN's past is a bit checkered, with the Iraq oil for food program as its chief example of out of control fraud. Can EasyJet trust that the UN backed offsets will be any more effective?

Credit Card Environmentalism

There is a hint in this article at an other problem with carbon offsets, that this is just credit card environmentalism. Carbon offsets allow the rich to buy off there indulgences, rather then change they behavior.

“Low-budget airlines in particular have been targeted by environmentalists because they have driven a boom in air travel. The environment minister Ian Pearson labeled Ryanair the "irresponsible face of capitalism" this year after the airline criticized the European emissions trading scheme.”

Targeting the low cost airlines shows that the cost of saving the planet will be born by those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.