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Background and Objective
The market for voluntary offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany is growing rapidly. More and more organizations, in particular companies, have set themselves climate protection targets, for the achievement of which carbon credits are frequently being used. The interest in credits from German projects has also increased; in 2022, offset providers in Germany sold a total of 71.8 million tons of CO2e in the form of carbon credits, 43.6 million of which were retired. Since companies usually offset residual emissions in order to claim carbon neutrality, they are repeatedly confronted with accusations of greenwashing. In addition, particularly in the case of domestic projects, there is a risk of emission reductions being claimed several times (double claiming), which can undermine environmental integrity. The mitigation hierarchy recommended by German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt – UBA) - avoid, before reduce, before compensate - is not sufficiently upheld in these cases.
Against this background, UBA has commissioned the project "Groundwork for the establishment of a label for Domestic Compensation of Greenhouse Gases", which is being carried out jointly by aldephi research (lead) and Wuppertal Institute. The aim is to test a possible label or marking system in the field of greenhouse gas offsets and thus to contribute to quality assurance in this field.
Implementation and Outlook
In the first step, the project team will analyze existing approaches and forms of labeling, including labels for offsetting and certification of corporate climate neutrality. On this basis, a list of criteria for the evaluation of domestic offsetting will be developed, which will then form the basis for the formulation of a labeling system. This work will be flanked by several workshops, which will enable the continuous involvement of relevant stakeholders in the process and thus critical reflection of research findings. The work is intended to take into account the changed framework conditions of the Paris Agreement and to enable environmentally sound participation of stakeholders in climate change mitigation activities.