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Does buying an offset from Climate Care reliably reduce emissions?

Climate change commentators are generally highly sceptical of 'carbon offsets' - paying money to a company that promises to reduce emissions elsewhere by an amount equivalent to the carbon cost of your flight or car travel. Is the scepticism reasonable? I analysed one of the highest profile projects of one of the best carbon offset companies.

My conclusions were that an offset payment to Climate Care could not be said reliably to reduce emissions. It might do or it might not. The company significantly overestimates the degree to which payments are directly linked to future emissions reduction. The full notes on this work are to be found in the PDF at the top of the page.