Business travel is unavoidable. Companies know that and try to compensate by using carbon credits to address travel-related footprints. However, the credits don’t really deliver the intended impact. They only play a supporting role in reaching the global 1.5°-degree target and contributing to ecosystem restoration and conservation. We need to use the credits responsibly – and still do more. The Taking real climate action report is a step towards doing more. It emphasizes the need for companies to strike the right balance between genuine emission reduction efforts and responsible carbon credit utilization.
Credibility not just claims
Taking real climate action takes a hard look at the trouble with climate claims, including that especially murky area where the climate mitigation potential of projects is often overestimated or the potential effects on biodiversity and local communities are overlooked. When claims are based on low-quality credits, it makes companies susceptible to accusations of greenwashing.
goodcarbon, a BCD marketplace partner, guides companies to credible, high-quality projects. These projects originate from forests, soil and ocean ecosystems and have a triple impact: on the climate, on biodiversity and present benefits for local communities. The featured goodcarbon case studies demonstrate how companies can invest time and resources for a verifiable impact on natural, climate and social aspects.
Must-read case studies in this report:
- Generation Forest: In Panama, this nearly 30-year-old project engages with abandoned overgrazed cattle land and turns it into multi-species, multi-story, permanent forest ecosystems that result in large scale carbon sequestration.
- Great Green Wall of Gujarat: This flagship mangrove restoration project which will create a protective bioshield over an unprecedented 1,000 km coastline of the Gujarat State in western India.
- Varaha Subsistence Farming Practice: This transformative project in the Indo-Gangetic plain region of India is set up to revolutionize subsistence farming practices on a large scale by implementing a range of regenerative agriculture practices that not only promises potential reductions in emissions and carbon sequestration but also aims to bolster the income of smallholder farmers.
Companies can no longer pay scant attention to climate action. We must avoid viewing emission compensation as a simple equation and instead adopt more nuanced and comprehensive perspectives that will combat climate change and create and achieve positive climate goals.
