Timeline: The 60-year history of carbon offsets
Carbon offsets have made headlines in recent years – often for the wrong reasons.
From investigations into “phantom credits” and “crypto” offset schemes through to late-night comedians running lengthy segments, journalists and researchers have revealed a range of issues that can arise through attempts to “cancel out” emissions.
But the chequered history of carbon offsets – and the ideas, experiments and policies that informed them – is much longer, spanning more than six decades.
Emissions-offsetting took root in US environmental law in the 1970s, particularly amendments to the Clean Air Act. Early experiments with trading offsets of lead, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide in the US laid the groundwork for market-based environmental regulation worldwide.
Such mechanisms found support from a chorus of voices, including fossil-fuel companies and conservative politicians from the UK to Australia, who favoured “efficiency” and markets over “command-and-control” environmental regulation.
Many large NGOs, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and Nature Conservancy, also argued for emissions trading over a carbon tax, even partnering with corporations to reduce their emissions.
Below, Carbon Brief’s timeline of carbon-offsetting traces the origins, ideas, arguments, milestones and controversies, from the 1960s through to today.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”