It’s been a little while since we’ve written something about the state of play for U.S. climate policy, but we got a little news today that we wanted to share.
Many of our friends and allies work hard to monitor U.S. climate change policy, and one of the critical issues is carbon offsetting. The U.S. Department of Energy’s own research concluded that the emissions reductions stipulated in the bill will be met more through international offsets than domestic action. This is troubling when we consider how quickly we must move to return to 350 ppm.
By now the concept of offsetting is widely known, but few people know that the House version of the climate bill contains such a high quantity of allowed offsets. Greenpeace used a clever satire to further illuminate the challenge–and it’s not too late to do something about this! The Senate version of the bill has yet to be introduced, and Senator Boxer Barbara, whose committee plays a pivotal role in shaping the content, has expressed concerns with offsets. Check out www.thecroc.org for actions you can take.