(Washington) Some of the largest companies in the world are contributing to the phenomenon of “greenwashing” by purchasing large quantities of “probably junk” carbon credits, an NGO warned on Thursday.
Corporate Accountability’s analysis states that big names like Disney, Volkswagen, and Air France are among the firms investing heavily in carbon credits that are probably worthless. These credits, purchased from environmental projects, are supposed to contribute to their objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“These trends are extremely worrying,” Rachel Rose Jackson, head of the NGO, told AFP.
According to her, the massive increase in purchases of carbon credits seems made “to allow a continuation of greenwashing”, practices creating a false impression of measures that are good for the environment.
Carbon credits are financial instruments allowing companies and countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, for example through projects aimed at avoiding deforestation or installing renewable energies.
This system represents around 2 billion dollars globally but it has recently been the subject of strong criticism, studies having shown that the announced emission reductions were often greatly overestimated, or even simply non-existent.
A first analysis carried out last fall by Corporate Accountability, in collaboration with the newspaper Guardianshowed that 39 of the top 50 emissions offset projects were “probably shoddy.”
By re-analyzing the current top 50 projects, the number of those likely worthless increased to 42, despite the emergence of standards to attempt to reform the market.
Seven projects were classified as “potentially” worthless, and one of them lacked information for analysis.
The buyers of these dubious credits were from many sectors, not just the fossil fuel industry.
Thirty major companies, including Shell, Nestlé and Boeing, purchased large quantities of “notoriously” bad credits. “You’d have to have your head in the sand not to know that these projects are under scrutiny,” said Rachel Rose Jackson.
The government of US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday “safeguards” intended to ensure that carbon credit markets effectively reduce CO emissions2.
But Rachel Rose Jackson remains skeptical: “even if it is good to launch a series of new principles, it is not proven that they can be practically applied”.