Improving Citizen Responsibility in the North and its Consequences for the South: Voluntary Carbon Offsets and Government Involvement

Abstract

The main question for this chapter is whether there is a need for government intervention to ensure that private carbon offset mechanisms make a useful contribution to climate change policies and ultimately to the pursuit of sustainable development. The chapter investigates practices in Western Europe, with particular focus on the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. This exploration starts from the premise that Northern consumers are not sufficiently equipped to ensure the integrity of the carbon offset offer, especially when the offsets will be achieved in another part of the world. Secondly, some or most suppliers of carbon offsets have commercial interests, which means that they will compete for sales of carbon credits. This leads to the proposition that there should be guarantees against a race to the bottom regarding the credibility and integrity of the carbon offers. Credibility refers to whether the agreed offsets will in fact be achieved. Integrity refers to whether their achievement will lead to unacceptable negative effects contravening the principle of sustainable development.