Carbon offsetting: are there muchbetter alternatives?

When renowned responsible travel experts responsibletravel.com decide to publicly withdraw their support for carbon offsetting, many committed environmentalists will have nodded their heads approvingly. Most will agree that carbon offsetting has proved a ‘dangerous distraction’ to the real issue of reducing carbon emissions in the first place. However, we fear that important and valuable alternatives may be ignored as companies now clamour to distance themselves from offsetting and create a bit of good pr in the process.

The problem is largely in the message associated with a term like carbon ‘offsetting’ and the claims of ‘carbon neutrality’ that come with it. We absolutely agree that this has been a ‘dangerous distraction’ from meaningful action. There are however some important alternatives out there which have a far greater impact than just ‘offsetting’ our own guilt. They should not be ignored just because traditional offsets are rightly no longer popular.

One such alternative comes in the shape of Bristol based charity ‘The Converging World’. Their innovative model involves raising funds to build wind turbines, and investing the income from electricity generation and sale of gold standard carbon credits in building more wind turbines, putting money into local social development projects and carbon reduction back home. As a result, donating the equivalent amount of a normal carbon offset will make your money go so much further towards tangible results.

Donations, like offsets, are by no means a replacement for taking meaningful steps to cut carbon emissions in the first place. We try to make that easy and desirable, by choosing a growing range of UK and European active holidays and providing the advice and resources needed to get there with a lower carbon footprint. However, people will still choose to fly long distances. When they do, it is our job to make sure it really was worth it in terms of local conservation and sustainable development. If a traveller wishes to recognise the environmental impact of their trip and make a donation to important projects like The Converging World, we still feel this is better than not doing so.

You can donate to the Converging World, read our full analysis of carbon offsetting, or our explanation of carbon offsetting here