Offsetting Responsibly

Many respectable businesses and organisations are currently using offsets as part of their wider climate change strategies. Examples include Aviva, BP, HSBC, NewsCorporation, Royal Mail, Sky, Tesco and many governments. Climate change regulations such as the Kyoto Protocol and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme also promote the use of robust carbon offsets.

The use of offsets is, however, regarded by some as controversial for a number of reasons including lack of understanding, the unethical practices of a minority of offset providers, misguided use of offsets by buyers and sensationalist media reporting.

CarbonAided has produced a guide which provides more information on how offsets make a difference to climate change and how best to use them responsibly. The guide also provides links to offsetting guidelines produced by other entities including the FT and the Carbon Trust.

Click the icon to view or download the guide as a pdf document - you may need to install the Adobe Reader software.

Alternatively, you can view the html version of the guide.