Essential, expensive and evolving: The outlook for carbon credits and offsets
Governments and companies around the world are ramping up their decarbonisation commitments due to increasing pressure to act on climate change from multiple stakeholders. But making and achieving credible decarbonisation commitments is challenging for businesses, particularly in emissions-intensive sectors.
Carbon credits allow businesses to make earlier and more ambitious commitments. Credits allow businesses to reduce their emissions now through offsets, while taking cost-effective action to reduce future emissions through asset turnover and evolution of their business models. In the longer term, credits have an essential role in offsetting hard-to-abate emissions from products which lack low or zero emissions options.
Carbon credits are an essential part of the business toolkit, providing flexibility, control and significant cost savings. The best role for credits depends on business context and strategy.