Shell has avoided paying compensation for nearly 2 million sham carbon credits it supported in China, as registry Verra has been unable to hold the world’s largest offsets buyer to account for the scandal.
Verra told Climate Home the case is “unprecedented”, but it raises questions over the leading carbon standard’s ability to enforce its rules and guarantee integrity in the ailing voluntary carbon market – especially when critical decisions concern a dominant player like Shell.
The energy giant was closely involved in ten carbon offsetting programmes that aimed to slash methane gas released from rice paddies across eastern China. But, as Climate Home previously revealed, the carbon credits – which Shell partly used to justify sales of “carbon neutral” liquefied natural gas (LNG) – failed to cut planet-heating emissions as claimed.
After identifying serious issues and cancelling the projects in late August 2024, Verra informed a Shell subsidiary in China that the meaningless credits would need to be compensated.
So far, however, the carbon standard has been unable to claw back any of the 1.8 million credits generated by the ten projects, which were primarily used by Shell to offset real greenhouse gas emissions created by its vast fossil fuel operations.
Read more;
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/01/31/shell-dodges-paying-compensation-for-sham-carbon-credits-in-china/
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6 w
Dear Kihm Francis Your climate warning has received over 50 agrees! We have reached out to Shell by email and requested a response. I will keep you updated on any progress! To reach more people and increase the chance of a response, click the Share button above to share the review on your social accounts. For every new member that joins We Don't Have Time from your network, we will plant a tree and attribute it to you! /Adam, We Don't Have Time
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This is where the issue is... if a company like Shell is doing something wrong, lying, deception etc. they need to be punished and pay compensation
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Shell is an enemy of the planet
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This is just wild. This is the kind of thing that makes people lose trust in carbon markets and wonder if they were really serious about tackling climate change.
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This is a mistrust amongst the systems. Working towards offsetting the carbon credits should be a major priority and work together to achieve it.
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@millicent_olale yep, 100%
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This undermines trust in offset systems and highlights the need for stricter oversight to ensure environmental integrity and corporate responsibility in carbon markets.