Are Carbon Offsets Helping Tackle Climate Change?

Name: Are Carbon Offsets Helping Tackle Climate Change?
Rating: 4.6 (215 reviews)

Why It's a Lot Harder to Get Offsets Right Than You Probably Think!

Created byMark Trexler

Last updated 11/2022

English

What you'll learn

Understand the 30+ year history of carbon offsets
Explore the definition of and key criteria for qualifying as a carbon offset
Understand why carbon offsets have proven to be so challenging and contentious
Understand the issues associated with buying or investing in carbon offsets
Explore the carbon offsets literature

Course content

9 sections • 26 lectures • 3h 3m total length

Introduction5:20
This short lecture will introduce the scope of this course when it comes to understanding and exploring carbon offsets as a tool for mitigating climate change.
Background to Carbon Offsets6:22
This lesson goes back to the first carbon offset project in 1988, and provides a review of how carbon offsets became so popular so quickly.

Defining a Carbon Offset5:18
We'll introduce the definition of carbon offsets, and differentiate between the criteria key to offsets' environmental integrity, and those that aren't. The course focuses on the former, but the latter group is important to understand.
Offset Permanence7:46
Why is offset permanence a core criterion for carbon offsets, and how is permanence being defined?
Offset Leakage6:01
Why is "no leakage" a core criterion for carbon offsets, and how is leakage defined and quantified?
Offset Additionality - Introduction3:38
The first of three lessons focused on the key offset topic of additionality, this lesson introduces the additionality and its definition.
Additionality - Why So Critical to Environmental Integrity?5:16
Most people don't recognize just how important additionality is to the environmental integrity of carbon offsets and carbon markets. This lesson explores why additionality is, for all practical purposes, indispensable.
Why Additionality is So Hard to Get Right8:54
Even if you understand the importance of additionality, you may not grasp why it's so hard to actually get additionality right. This lesson analogizes to the criminal justice system to help explain the challenge.
Given the Challenges, What's Reasonable to Expect for Environmental Integrity?4:52
There is no way to ever have a perfect offset pool in which all tons are reliably additional, permanent, and not subject to leakage, so what can we expect?

Carbon Offset Critiques5:07
Carbon offsets have been criticized on a wide variety of grounds, and we'll quickly explore what those grounds have been.
What's Been the Real Problem for Offsets?9:34
You'll hear a lot of discussion of what the main problems facing offsets has been, including fraud and double-counting, but a lot of that discussion is misleading.
What Does the Literature Say About How We've Done?8:37
We don't ask "how have we done with offsets" nearly enough, but there is some literature that has tried to answer the question. We'll explore some of those studies and their conclusions.

From Round 1 to Round 28:10
Many observers thought voluntary offset markets would fade away, and they started to, until the idea of "net zero" gained traction starting around 2015. It's transformed the course of offset markets and expectations.
Nature Based Solutions in Round 26:10
Nature-based solutions are all the rage today, but how will they perform in the face of climate change?
Is it Time to Score Carbon Offsets?6:55
The first carbon offset scoring system was developed more than a decade ago, but it never caught on. That might be changing, and that's a good thing.
NEW - An Updated Deep Dive into the Status of Carbon Offsets Scoring14:52
This video provides a more in-depth review of the different approaches to scoring carbon offsets currently under consideration.

So You Want to Buy Carbon Offsets?7:38
If you want to buy carbon offsets, we can't tell you which ones to buy. But we can suggest how to do your own due diligence.
So You're Considering Investing in Carbon Offsetss?4:09
If you're considering investing in carbon offsets, you really want to understand the history and challenges of offsets, and you should do some serious due diligence.
Potential Alternatives to Offsets4:23
Several alternatives exist to carbon offsets, and they might be better for climate change mitigation, but will buyers purchase them?

NEW - Curating a Collective Climate Change Intelligence8:30
NEW - Slicing and Dicing Curated Climate Knowledge11:02
Part 2 of a 3 part video series providing a much more comprehensive look at the collective climate change intelligence that is the Climate Web
NEW - From Curated to Actionable Climate Knowledge9:16
Part 3 of a 3 part video series providing a much more comprehensive look at the collective climate change intelligence that is the Climate Web

Requirements

No carbon offsets experience required, but the course also digs deeply into critical aspects of carbon offsets.

Description

Carbon offsets have been a popular climate change mitigation option for individuals and companies alike, but they have also been very contentious. This course provides you with an in-depth understanding of what kind of commodity carbon offsets are, how they have evolved, the biggest challenges offsets have encountered when it comes to delivering climate change mitigation, and where offset markets might be headed next. It answers several key questions:

What defines a carbon offset?
How long is long enough to demonstrate the permanence of carbon offsets?
How much leakage is too much when it comes to getting qualified as a carbon offset?
Why is additionality so important to the environmental integrity of carbon offsets?
Why is additionality so hard to get right, even with best efforts?
What's the single most important thing that would improve the integrity of offset markets?
What's the role of nature-based solutions in carbon offsets?
Where are carbon offset markets headed?
How can you dig deeper into carbon offsets on your own?

If you're new to carbon offsets and carbon markets, or are considering purchasing or investing in carbon offsets, take advantage of this course to leverage thousands of hours of carbon offsets experience. Your instructor worked on the first carbon offset project 35 years ago, and many other offset projects since then. He is widely published on carbon offset topics including additionality and the environmental integrity of carbon offsets, and has spent thousands of hours curating carbon offsets information and knowledge in the Climate Web, a comprehensive climate change knowledge management solution developed over the last 10 years.

Who this course is for:

Individuals and organizations considering purchasing or investing in carbon offsets
Anyone wanting to understand the evolution of carbon offsets over the last 30+ years
Anyone wanting to understand the current and potential roles of carbon offsets in mitigating climate change
Anyone interested in improving the environmental integrity of carbon offsets

Are Carbon Offsets Helping Tackle Climate Change?

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to the Course2 lectures • 12min

New Videos Relevant to the Course1 lecture • 10min

Understanding the Requirements of a Carbon Offset7 lectures • 42min

Evaluating Carbon Offsets as a Tool for Climate Change Mitigation3 lectures • 23min

From Round 1 to Round 2 for Carbon Offsets4 lectures • 36min

What Should You Do When it Comes to Carbon Offsets?3 lectures • 16min

Digging Deeper Into Carbon Offsets in the Climate Web1 lecture • 6min

Digging Deeper Into the Climate Web3 lectures • 29min

Course Take Aways2 lectures • 9min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: