Carbon offsetting has become big business across the world. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the number of companies created to help businesses offset emissions has doubled in the past four months. The industry is worth half a billion dollars in the New South Wales state alone. This is partly due to consumers who are choosing to pay extra for services with a green footprint. The only shame is that the so called offset schemes are infrequently monitored and certified. Particularly with planting trees, as one of the most popular forms to offset emissions, there are masses of controversy surrounding it’s real overall effect.

So Australian Federal opposition, the Labour party are promising to introduce a national standard for offsetting if they are elected.

“Consumers need certainty that such schemes will deliver the offsets in a way that is measurable and of lasting value,” Mr Garrett said.

Total Environment Centre spokeswoman Jane Castle said a stricter accreditation system was required to regulate the burgeoning sector.

Tree planting was regarded as one of the least reliable methods, she said.

“A lot [of companies] are selling trees without accreditation. Their claims of carbon neutrality are not accredited or monitored,” she said.

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This entry was posted on September 10th, 2007 at 16:51 (GMT) and is filed under Offsets . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.