OFFSETS

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Experience to date

In both the UN Climate Neutral Strategy and the state- ment adopted by the heads of the agencies, funds and programmes of the UN system, the UN approach stresses the importance of implementing ongoing measures to reduce GHG emissions on an ongoing basis as part of a plan with specific targets, whether or not any offsets are purchased. The UN Climate Neutral Strategy consid- ers that offsetting GHG emissions should not be seen as a substitute for efforts to reduce emissions, and should only compensate for emissions which cannot be avoided.

Overall, the UN system organizations are still in the early stages of the offsetting process. Roughly one- third of the reporting organizations have undertaken some type of activity related to offsetting. A number of organizations have indicated that they are still in the process of reviewing the financial implications and cost considerations. For most organizations, this is the first year that an inventory has been prepared; some orga- nizations – particularly those with a significant number of field offices – have not yet got full coverage and are therefore lacking an accurate picture of the full GHG in- ventory. Others have reported that they have chosen to focus first on emissions reductions before offsetting.

Five UN system institutions have declared themselves climate-neutral or carbon-neutral7 zation8

. Yet another organi- offset part of its footprint in 2008 using a more

restricted boundary, expanding to full coverage in 2009. Another six organizations9

have made specific high-

profile events or meetings entirely or partially climate- neutral. Two organizations have indicated that they are at the stage of having put forward proposals to include financial provision for offsetting in the 2010–11 bien- nium, one of which has been approved.

When purchasing offsets, organizations have selected projects which have additional environment benefits, which belong to projects in a geographical location

7. These are the GEF Secretariat, SBC, SCBD, UNEP and the World Bank Group: IFC.

8. UNITAR. 9. FAO, ILO, UNDP, UNECE, UN/ISDR and the UN Secretariat.

of special interest to that organization, are generated under a specific CDM-methodology (e.g. renewable energy, energy efficiency), or in some cases which have also satisfied the Gold Standard criteria.

There has also been variation in the means by which offsets have been funded, with both core funds and extra-budgetary resources being used. In some cases, particularly concerning the offsetting of specific events, funding has been provided through external sponsors, for example individual governments or private founda- tions. In these cases, the procurement of offsets has not always been conducted by the UN.

A more systematic approach, pioneered by one UN or- ganization and now being taken up or piloted by sever- al others, has been to finance offsets at the point where the GHG emissions are being generated. In the case of travel, in several cases organizations are charging the offset costs to the travel budget line without increasing the overall allocation to the latter. This keeps the overall initiative cost-neutral, while reducing GHG emissions as compared to what they would otherwise have been. Furthermore, this has had the additional benefit of sen- sitizing staff to the climate impact of travel.

In the future, the organizations of the UN system will explore options for cooperating on offsetting initia- tives, including putting in place mechanisms for joint purchase. Such approaches could generate economies of scale, both in terms of the transactions costs of con- ducting the process, skill sharing and in terms of lower offset price.

Offsetting could be combined with efforts to reduce or limit emissions. There have been some innovative suggestions which could be further developed. For example – as one organization has suggested – the possibility could be explored with airline companies of converting frequent flyer miles from official travel into contributions towards offsets. Another proposal for possible future consideration is to “cap-and-trade” emissions by allocating a certain amount of travel-relat- ed emissions to each division within the organization, and allowing divisions to trade between themselves.