[Report] The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting

“The Oxford Offsetting Principles report is an essential resource to guide the design and delivery of voluntary net-zero commitments by government, cities and companies. Our multi-disciplinary team highlights four main elements to successful offsetting practice.

• Prioritise reduction of your own emissions first, ensure the environmental integrity of offsets you use and disclose how those offsets operate
• Shift offsetting towards options that directly remove carbon from the atmosphere
• Shift offsetting towards long-lived storage, which removes carbon from the atmosphere permanently or almost permanently
• Support development of a market for net-zero-aligned offsets.

The report also focuses on the importance of a well-founded approach to nature-based carbon offsets, such as forest restoration.”

Citation: Allen, Myles, Kaya Axelsson, Ben Caldecott, Thomas Hale, Cameron Hepburn, Conor Hickey, Eli Mitchell-Larson et al. “The Oxford principles for net zero aligned carbon offsetting.” Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford (2020).