Carbon Offset Companies targeted by Climate Camp Activists


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8.30am : 20.08.07


Activists from the Camp for Climate Action have simultaneously targeted the
offices of two separate carbon offset companies. The protestors are dressed as
red herrings in order to highlight that carbon offset schemes are a dangerous
distraction from taking effective climate action.

This morning, the offices of two high profile carbon offset companies in
different cities – the Carbon Neutral Company in London and Climate Care in
Oxford - have been disrupted.

The protestors are colourfully dressed as red herrings to symbolise the fact
that carbon offset schemes are corrupting the climate change debate, taking
attention away from effective responses to the threat of climate change and
conning the general public. Their aim is to disrupt the day-to-day running of
the offices and to raise awarness about the ineffectiveness of carbon-offset
schemes – especially among well meaning office staff who may not realize the
damage their work is doing to the fight to prevent runaway global warming.

Carbon offsetting doesn’t work because:


* We cannot know what emissions have been avoided as a result of renewable
energy projects – any hypotheses are guesswork. Therefore we cannot possibly
calculate how much it would cost us to buy those savings – offset companies are
selling us nothing but hot air.

* Many schemes for ‘neutralising’ our emissions – such as tree planting –
have been completely discredited, being scientifically illiterate and based on
invented savings and . Yet companies such as Climate Care and Carbon Neutral
continue to use them.
* Real offsets would have to save the same amount of carbon within the same
time frame as it is released. Trees are assumed by the offset companies
themselves to take at least 99 years to absorb the carbon emitted in a 2 hour
flight. Even if it did work, it would be like filling a bathtub with a bucket
while trying to empty it with a thimble; the bath will soon overflow.

* Most techno-fix offset schemes are based in the developing world. Even
if every poor nation on the planet went carbon-free today, industrialised
nations would still have to slash our carbon emissions if we are to have any
hope of preventing catastrophic climate change. Emissions from developing
nations are not the problem.


“Carbon offset companies are selling well-intentioned consumers a dangerous
peace of mind by pretending that they can make emissions disappear” said Theo
Middleton, one of the activists in the Climate Care office. “Climate Care and BA
have teamed up to offer fliers a false opportunity to buy their way out of their
responsibility to the climate.”

“Carbon offsets are ineffective, based on dubious science and lead people to
believe they are helping when they are not – the concept and the practice are a
con,” said Sophie Nathan, who is taking part in the Carbon Neutral Company
invasion. “Real climate action involves taking direct responsibility for
personal emissions levels as well as engaging in political organisation for
wider change.”

To speak to the activists in London, call 07812 049 545

To speak to the activists in Oxford, call 07746711667

To speak with Kevin Smith, author of “The Carbon Neutral Myth – Offset
Indulgences for your Climate Sins” and climate camper, call 07799 511640

Notes for Editors

Carbon offset companies have been on the receiving end of a great deal of
negative publicity in the last year. This is the second time in 2007 that the
Carbon Neutral Company has had its offices occupied by environmental activistsi.
Both companies were also negatively portrayed in a recent Channel 4 documentary
on the offsets industryii and in a report put out earlier in the year by the
Amsterdam-based think tank, the Transnational Institute. New Internationalist
magazine focused on the debate in July last year, exposing ineffective and
damaging offset methods for fighting climate change.

This is big business - British Airways reported a £620m pre-tax profit for the
year ending March 2006, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year, despite the
increase in fuel costs during the period, and its short haul service moved into
profit for the first time in a decade.iii This was a period of expansion and
profitability as much for Climate Care as it was for British Airways. In July
2006, Climate Care’s David Wellington wrote that “in the past 10 to 12 months we
have seen a 10-fold increase in sales,” and that 85 per cent of this growth was
in “online sales for offsetting flight emissions”.iv

See also www.carbontradewatch.org


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