Our SA ZERO members met for a virtual presentation and workshop on Carbon Offsets. Bodhi Hardinge, Senior Manager of Climate Change and Sustainability Services at Ernst & Young provided a very useful overview of the national Carbon Market including the role of carbon credits, current corporate trends and applications; as well as some of the challenges, risks, and opportunities of utilising carbon offsets on the pathway to net zero.
The presentation spurred a useful discussion among the SA ZERO cluster group on local examples and approaches to carbon offsets, with the group exchanging common challenges, learnings, and advice to help accelerate SA’s zero carbon and zero waste pathways.
A summary of the key takeaways include:
- Carbon markets can be an important supporting mechanism to decarbonise and achieve sustainability goals, especially for hard-to-abate sectors.
- Earning social license and addressing integrity concerns of carbon offsets requires better and more rigorously enforced standards.
- Voluntary carbon markets are still evolving, with attention needed to discern good from bad and navigating carbon neutrality claims.
EY has recently released a report on the global voluntary carbon market outlook 2024 report, available here.
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