Potential Pitfalls

Unfortunately, the current UK carbon credit market is still fairly new, largely unregulated and, frankly, therefore something of a jungle.

For example, strategically, there’s no guarantee the supply of credits available will be adequate for achieving net zero emissions by 2050. At an operational level, there’s also, to name but three shortcomings:

  • No set way of connecting buyers and suppliers, who can be anywhere in the world
  • Little pre or post trade transparency in many transactions
  • No standardisation in contract wording, terms or conditions.

In addition, the price of a credit can commonly be anything from a couple of pounds to well over £50 – it tends to vary according to factors such as the location of the generating environmental project – and, even then, cost by no means always equals quality.

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| Potential Pitfalls |

All these, and other factors, lead to organisations, who are frequently inexperienced in this market, making important mistakes when they try to negotiate it themselves. Common errors include:

  • Failing to have a proper carbon offsetting strategy in place beforehand…you need a clear policy, indicating what you’re trying to achieve, before you take the plunge.
  • Incurring avoidable costs, including by simply paying too much or buying at the wrong time
  • Obtaining poor quality credits, such as those not verified by respected auditing bodies or which fail to fulfil United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and which are therefore of limited use in activities such as marketing
  • Failing to maintain consistency with brand image or existing environmental efforts and thus not augmenting corporate reputations to the maximum extent

This helps to explain why organisations like Green Box Thinking – expert intermediaries who observe the highest standards in bringing purchasers and providers together, by creating pools of liquidity in specialist niches – are sorely needed.