When John Oliver wants to prove a point, you know it’s likely he’ll set up a legitimate business to highlight the sheer BS of it all.
And in this week’s Last Week Tonight, the host did it again, setting up his own carbon registry, Oliver’s Offsets, to prove how easy it is to look like you’re aiming for net zero emissions by 2050 without doing anything tangible to reduce them.
In a deep dive segment, Oliver unpacked the dubious corporate tactic of relying on carbon offsets to fulfil the net-zero emissions targets of a company in a high polluting industry, instead of backing it up with actual actions to reduce emissions. It’s all part of the devious fossil fuel propaganda we all buy into.
“We know carbon offsets are bullshit, both because you’re a reasonably intelligent person and because you know exactly what show you are watching right now — I don’t open my beak to squawk out good news. This thing pops open for sad news and porridge and I’m all out of porridge right now,” he said.
“But exactly how offsets are bullshit is really interesting, because it’s easy to say that you are reducing carbon emissions, but it is much harder to prove it.”
Oliver provides really helpful definitions of what carbon offsets are, looks at what the world’s largest net-zero pledging companies claim their offsets do versus what they’re actually doing to reduce the amount of carbon they’re sending into the atmosphere, and the incredibly lax regulations in place around this.
And yes, to drive the point home, Oliver sets up his own carbon credits scheme so you too can throw money at the problem!
