Carbon offsets aren’t helping the planet — four ways to fix them

illuminem summarizes for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on Nature or enjoy below

🗞️ Driving the news: Carbon offsets can globally aid in CO2 management, but their effectiveness is limited by pricing and structure issues
• Most traded offsets (90%) focus on preventing carbon release rather than removal, like funding forest preservation
• To meet 2030 projections, offset volumes must increase 15 times

🔭 The context: Carbon offsets, a tool for hard-to-decarbonize sectors, face market uncertainty due to ambiguous valuation
• Prices fluctuate drastically, often ranging from under $10 to $100 per tonne, sometimes below the true cost of CO2 removal

🌎 Why does it matter for the planet: A functional and trustworthy global carbon-removal market is crucial for overall CO2 emissions reductions
•  Failure to establish this could lead to industry tensions and public skepticism, hampering decarbonization efforts

⏭️ What's next: Researchers must shape the carbon market with clear incentives, strong monitoring, and guarantees for genuine carbon removal
• Offset systems should recognize varied removal methods while considering carbon storage duration and reliability

📈 One stat: Carbon-removal offsets need to grow from current levels to a demand of 1.5 billion to 2 billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, with the sector projected to be worth $50 billion annually by 2030

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