Offsets: How Long is Long Enough?

One of the key criteria in carbon offsets is “permanence.” But when it comes to permanence, carbon offset markets today are going in two distinctly different directions. On the one hand, you have offsets that promise long-term and even geologically permanent climate change mitigation benefits e.g., by mineralizing CO₂ into rock. On the other hand, you have offsets that only promise to delay CO₂ emissions by a matter of years, or even a single year. Notwithstanding price tags that differ by more than an order of magnitude (e.g., ~$500 for the former, ~$10/ton for the latter), both categories are being marketed as equally fit-for-purpose offsets.

Are they really the same thing for purposes of climate change mitigation? Obviously not, but the underlying question rapidly becomes: “how long is long enough” when it comes to keeping a ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere for it to be considered a carbon offset? Our new Climate Insights page “Offsets: How Long is Long Enough?” digs into this topic and we encourage you to take a look. It follows up on this LinkedIn thread that received more than 10,000 views. 

It’s important to note that this Climate Insights page is focused specifically on the question of “offset permanence.” If you want to explore other aspects of carbon offsets, you can explore offset-related topics comprehensively elsewhere in the Climate Web, e.g. through this Carbon Offsets Roadmap Lite.