[s9e21] | Carbon Offsets

The story of refers to the main segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver , which aired on August 21, 2022 . The episode dives into the "Wild West" of the voluntary carbon market, exploring why these popular tools for achieving "net-zero" goals are often deeply flawed. The Premise: The "Net-Zero" Illusion

: Many projects, particularly large-scale renewable energy farms or forests that were never under threat, would have existed anyway. [S9E21] Carbon Offsets

Oliver centers the story on the concept of —the requirement that an offset project must only happen because of the carbon credit funding. The story of refers to the main segment

Mapped: The impacts of carbon-offset projects around the world Oliver centers the story on the concept of

Oliver's final take is a warning: the current system is essentially a "get out of jail free card" that prioritizes corporate PR over actual climate action. org/">Verra have responded to these criticisms?

The episode details several high-profile examples of carbon offset failures:

: Oliver points to instances where "protected" forests used for offsets burned down in wildfires, releasing the stored carbon back into the atmosphere and rendering the previous "offset" moot. The "Greenwashing" Trap