- Oil and gas companies in China and other countries use low-quality carbon offsets to “greenwash” their natural gas imports.
- Li Jiatong says carbon offsets are a smokescreen for oil and gas companies to obscure their continued, redoubled carbon emissions.
Greenpeace, an environmental group, stated that big oil and gas companies in China and other countries use low-quality carbon offsets to “greenwash” their natural gas imports while failing to make strong emissions-cutting commitments. Greenwashing is when a company stresses sustainable aspects of a product to overshadow its involvement in environmentally damaging practices. Green Firms like PetroChina and CNOOC Gas and Power have signed long-term contracts with Shell to buy “carbon neutral” liquefied natural gas (LNG). This uses “forest offsets” to balance out carbon emissions.
Greenpeace, which has long opposed fossil fuel producers counting carbon offsets toward their emissions reduction goals, said the “carbon neutral” branding was misleading the public. Li Jiatong, project leader with Greenpeace in Beijing, said, “For oil and gas companies in particular, carbon offsets are a smokescreen to obscure their continued, redoubled carbon emissions.” PetroChina didn’t respond to a request for comment, while Shell declined to comment on the Greenpeace report. CNOOC Oil and Gas parent company did not participate in LNG purchases. Greenpeace said many offsets were not being measured consistently and sometimes were being double counted. And some forests tied to offset schemes were vulnerable to fire that could turn them into a carbon source rather than a carbon sink.
Greenpeace said credits from 15 forestry carbon sink projects in China involving Shell, PetroChina, CNOOC and other companies are already there—however, 80 per cent of the projects planted trees at medium to high risk of burning down. Rising sales of “carbon neutral” LNG drive-in in Asia is the surge in gas demand. The International Energy Agency said China’s gas consumption will reach 250 billion cubic metres by 2026, up from 216 bcm last year. This accounts for almost half of new global demand over the period. The idea of “carbon neutral” gas is likely to be on the agenda during COP28 talks starting this week, said Polly Hemming, director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Australia Institute.