One of the earliest schemes to ping my radar as a political blogger was the green movement’s idea of buying indulgences for emitting. Even in 2008, Carbon offsets had all the makings of a confidence scam.
Related: Math is Hard, But Net Zero Emissions Math is Harder – It Can’t Be Done by 2050
Comparisons to medieval papal dispensations were common. Bad behavior was forgiven if the donation was large enough. When organized crime does this, it’s called extortion. When the world’s elites do it, they strive to achieve their net-zero goals.
Net zero is not real, but the term has arrived to prop up the decades-long fraud of the climate cult and carbon credits (or offsets), which recently got some bad press.
From the UK Guardian: “Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis shows.”
The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading certifier and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation.
The research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to be “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions.
Talk about fitting the Climate Cult money-laundering template. Verra makes claims about the volume of deforestation which researchers suggest are inflated by as much as 400%, which Verra then takes credit for preventing while pocketing billions.
The one thing missing from this piece (worth the read), in my opinion, is what Verra does with the money it makes. Their offices are located in the middle of Washington, DC. While they claim the funds go to protect jungles from deforestation if they are over-projecting anticipated damage by 400% and collecting on their vaporware estimates, that leaves a lot of extra offsets.
According to Guidestar, Verra has hauled in gross receipts of over 40 million. Their 2020 990 includes a handful of green groups who benefit from their generosity (investment). APX Environmental Markets (NY, NY), Globalization Partners (Boston, MA), HBW Construction (Rockville, MD), Climate Focus (DC), Rainforest Alliance (NY, NY), the Climate, and the Community and Biodiversity Alliance.
I’m not digging into them or Verra’s executive officers, but I’m sure there’s plenty there for those with the time because very little about anything to do with the Climate Cult is above board. It’s a massive money laundering operation funding the advance of Democrat Socialism.
According to the Guardian,
The investigation found that:
- Only a handful of Verra’s rainforest projects showed evidence of deforestation reductions, according to two studies, with further analysis indicating that 94% of the credits had no benefit to the climate.
- The threat to forests had been overstated by about 400% on average for Verra projects, according to analysis of a 2022 University of Cambridge study.
- Gucci, Salesforce, BHP, Shell, easyJet, Leon and the band Pearl Jam were among dozens of companies and organisations that have bought rainforest offsets approved by Verra for environmental claims.
So what do the folks paying for these credits or offsets have to say about this research?
- Shell told the Guardian that using credits was “in line with our philosophy of avoid, reduce and only then mitigate emissions.”
- Gucci, Pearl Jam, BHP and Salesforce did not comment, ..
- Lavazza said it bought credits that were certified by Verra, “a world’s leading certification organisation,” as part of the coffee products company’s “serious, concrete and diligent commitment to reduce” its carbon footprint. It plans to look more closely into the project.
- The fast food chain Leon no longer buys carbon offsets from one of the projects in the studies …
- EasyJet has moved away from carbon offsetting to focus its net zero work on projects such as “funding for the development of new zero-carbon emission aircraft technology.”
Barbara Haya, the director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, has been researching carbon credits for 20 years, hoping to find a way to make the system function. She said: “The implications of this analysis are huge. Companies are using credits to make claims of reducing emissions when most of these credits don’t represent emissions reductions at all.
Will there be any fraud investigations? Probably not.
Exit Question: Since the COVID Cult and the Carbon Cult are mostly the same folks, how about a COVID offset system? A way to buy dispensations for your lies, smears, and fealty to that false god.
For comparison’s sake, imagine if Tony Fauci set it up.
