{"id":57362,"date":"2021-11-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=publication&p=57362"},"modified":"2024-08-19T14:27:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:27:21","slug":"do-carbon-offsets-offset-carbon","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/publication\/do-carbon-offsets-offset-carbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Do carbon offsets offset carbon?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carbon offsets have become a popular tool in global efforts to mitigate climate change. These programmes work by offering regulated polluters the opportunity to increase their own emissions if they subsidise equivalent emission reductions in unregulated markets. But a key unanswered empirical question is whether these carbon offsets have resulted in additional emissions reductions in unregulated markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this paper the authors develop and implement a new method for identifying ‘wasted’ subsidies, and use it to provide systematic evidence on the misallocation of carbon offsets in the Clean Development Mechanism – the world’s largest carbon offset programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using newly constructed data on the locations and characteristics of 1,350 wind farms in India, a context where it was believed, prior to its introduction, that the Clean Development Mechanism could significantly increase development above baseline projections, they estimate that at least 52% of approved carbon offsets were allocated to projects that would very likely have been built anyway. In addition to wasting scarce resources, the authors estimate that the sale of these offsets to regulated polluters has substantially increased global carbon dioxide emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key points for decision-makers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n