Government announces offsetting Code
February 1st 2008 Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has challenged the voluntary offsetting industry to provide standards for offsetting products so that they can be part of a Government Code of Best Practice for consumer offsetting products. As a starting point, the Code would only cover offsetting products using Kyoto-compliant credits explains Benn:
“It’s important that consumers who want to buy carbon offsets with confidence can do just that. When a consumer buys a tonne of carbon with the Government’s quality mark, they’ll know they’re buying a full tonne of carbon.
“However,we recognise that credits from the unregulated market may be innovative and of a very high standard. So we’re leaving the Offsetting Code open to high-quality voluntary offsetting products, provided the industry can provide a similar level of assurance about the standard of the credits.
“The challenge to the offsetting industry is to establish a clear, rigorous standard for voluntary projects that deals with the concerns that have been raised. We will support them in developing that standard – and when we have the necessary guarantees,we’ll include high-quality voluntary offsets in the Code.”
The Government has appointed AEA to become the accreditation body for the Code, and they have now issued the final draft of the Code for industry comment on accreditation procedures.
For more information on the draft code or to make a comment, visit www.defra.co.uk. More articles from WEE News Desk: | 
