Carbon Offsets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) [Video]

John Oliver explains what carbon offsets are, what they claim to do, how they might be making climate change even worse.

“The problem with Carbon Offsets is everyone wants to believe in them: Buyers -once they cheap-weight to make a big claim- and Sellers -want money for doing as little as possible- and ideally, there would be an entity in the middle charged with keeping both sides honest, and there actually is: they’re called Carbon offset Registries. They’re supposed to be neutral third parties who signed off on the efficacy of potential offsets. These four (Gold Standard, American Carbon registry, Verra, Climate Action Reserve) are the major ones in the voluntary offset market. But those registries aren’t really accountable to anyone, technically You or I could start a registry and given that they’re paid by the company selling the offset, it will not surprise you to learn that many experts say their standards are far too low.”

“And when you buy an offset so you can pollute more and that offset is bullsh*t you’re now actively making things worse.”