Research Seminar: Additionality of Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets are supposed to pay for emissions cuts that wouldn’t happen otherwise, but it’s often hard to tell if a project is truly “extra” or would have happened anyway.
On Feb 16, we had the pleasure to have Safak Yucel, Associate Professor of Operations Management, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington DC, presenting a recent work on how carbon registries should set the baseline for projects so the credits they issue represent real climate benefits.
The work compares two approaches: setting a project-specific baseline project based on reported information or using a standardized baseline for every project. The key insight is that a system that produces fewer “non-additional” credits does not always lead to larger total emissions cuts. The work discusses why this trade-off happens and when each approach is likely to work better.
https://sites.google.com/view/safakyucel/home
Upcoming Seminars