Dr Joe Romm: Dodgy Offsets, Double Accounting plus why solving climate is not a $2 a tonne problem.

Contents - Part 1 (of 3):

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Download Joes Paper here.

1 - A license to pollute

2 - Offsets relationship to “net zero”

3 - “Carbon neutral” claims = greenwash

4 - Pay to pollute

5 - 94% of offsets are worthless

6 - Quantifying deforestation is tricky

7 - 2 types of lawsuit

8 - Disputing claims of carbon neutrality

9 - Unregulated markets

10 - Solving the climate problem for a few bucks a tonne (?)

11 - European Carbon Trading System

12 - Unregulated Markets

In this first of three part interview with Dr Joe Romm, we discuss how dodgy off-sets and double accounting are plaguing climate progress at a time when the world urgently needs to get serious about climate change. 

Joe Romm was the acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewables in the US Department of Energy, back in the 1990’s and also the founder of the now ceased Climate Progress blog. Today Joe is a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Centre for Science, Sustainability and Media.

Part 1 focuses on the how offsets are misused by big brand names and nations in unregulated markets to peddle lies to the public.

In Part 2 we discuss how this impacts the NDC accounting systems that underpin the Paris Agreement and expose much less well off countries to yet another form of what Joe calls Climate Imperialism. 

In Part 3 we discuss how COP28 does not bode well having an oil boss as the president and how all these strands come together to reinforce the notion that the UNFCCC process is set-up to fail.