Concerns raised over government offset rules

News Article - 04 February 2009
Category: Industry

There are no carbon offsetting schemes that have been approved by the government currently in operation providing money to go towards tackling deforestation, in news that may be of interest to firms keen to begin accounting for carbon.

Tom Young, writing on the online pages of Business Green, notes that this follows the release of new quality guidelines from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, aimed at companies wishing to voluntarily offset their carbon footprints.

Concerns have been raised that the guidelines will only approve Certified Emission Reductions, Mr Young continued.

Last year, climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: "If we don't do something on global deforestation, then events that I saw in my constituency a year ago, with terrible flooding, will happen more often."

However, Mr Young claims that campaigners believe this conflicts with the government's position on offsets now.

Meanwhile, Business Green recently reported that The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce have stated that targets set out in the climate change bill will only be met with the introduction of personal carbon allowances.

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