Corporate carbon offsetting gets harder to defend without rigour. Here's how Irish companies should build a credible off...
After a credibility crisis in 2023–2024 that wiped out many of the cheaper credit markets, corporate carbon offsetting is rebuilding on more rigorous foundations. Irish companies now face a more complex purchasing environment, stricter disclosure requirements under CSRD, and growing scrutiny from NGOs and media. The question isn't whether to offset — it's how to do it in a way that withstands scrutiny.
The Verra REDD+ scandal broke in January 2023 via The Guardian and Zeit investigation. Analysis by researchers at Cambridge, Amsterdam, and others suggested that up to 94% of Verra's REDD+ (rainforest protection) credits did not represent genuine emissions reductions. Projects had systematically overstated their baselines — the counterfactual deforestation rate they claimed to be preventing.
The market response was rapid. REDD+ credit prices collapsed from €15–20 to €2–4. Several major corporate offsetting programmes were suspended. Airlines, tech companies, and consumer brands that had marketed "carbon neutral" products faced legal challenge in the UK, Germany, and Australia.
The institutional response was a credit quality reckoning. ICVCM (Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market) published its Core Carbon Principles in 2023 — a quality threshold that credits must meet to be labelled "high integrity." VCMI (Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative) published its Claims Code — setting standards for how corporate claims can be made.
Irish companies that had been buying cheap Verra credits for "carbon neutral" marketing had their legal departments nervous by mid-2024.
The post-crisis landscape has a clearer quality tier:
Tier 1 — Carbon Removal Credits (highest quality)
These are real, permanent, measurable removals. They are also expensive: €200–500/tonne. Most Irish SMEs can't build a meaningful offsetting programme on these alone, but anchoring a portion of purchases here gives credibility to the whole portfolio.
Tier 2 — High-Integrity Nature-Based
Price range: €15–60/tonne. These are the core of a credible offsetting portfolio.
Tier 3 — Avoidance Credits (use with caution)
Pre-ICVCM review REDD+ credits should not be used for public-facing claims.
Under the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), in-scope Irish companies (approximately 2,500 initially; expanding to SMEs by 2027) must report:
This is a material change from how many Irish companies have been reporting. Saying "we're carbon neutral" based on cheap offset purchases is no longer compatible with CSRD-level disclosure. The offset purchase is disclosed, the gross emissions are disclosed, and the gap is visible.
Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) — which Irish companies including several ISEQ 20 members have signed — explicitly restricts how offsets can be used:
An Irish company with a 2040 net-zero commitment under SBTi should be buying offsets as supplementary — not as a substitute for decarbonising their energy use, fleet, and supply chain.
Step 1: Baseline your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions accurately. Most Irish SME carbon footprints are underestimated because Scope 3 upstream supply chain emissions are excluded or estimated poorly. GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is the methodology; SEAI and Enterprise Ireland both offer tools and support for Irish companies.
Step 2: Set a reduction trajectory. The SBTi 1.5°C pathway for most Irish sectors requires 4.2% absolute emission reduction per year from a 2020/2021 baseline. Define what reduction you can achieve by 2030 through operational changes, energy switching, and supply chain engagement.
Step 3: Define your offsetting scope. What residual emissions will you offset, and for what claims? The difference between "carbon neutral" (all emissions offset), "net zero" (SBTi-consistent long-term), and "climate positive" (net negative) has legal implications. VCMI's Claims Code has clear definitions.
Step 4: Procure through verified standards.
Step 5: Retire, don't trade. Credits used for corporate claims must be formally retired (cancelled) in the registry. Credits that are traded or re-sold do not count against your footprint.
Step 6: Disclose the purchasing. Publish the projects, the vintages, the tonnes, and the standards. Proactive disclosure is better than disclosure under regulatory pressure.
From 2026, the EU Empowering Consumers Directive prohibits environmental claims that cannot be independently verified. "Carbon neutral" claims without verifiable underlying data are no longer legally defensible in the EU.
Several Irish retail and FMCG brands are already reviewing their "carbon neutral product" claims in light of this. The legal test: could a reasonable consumer be misled about the climate benefit? If the offset quality doesn't match the marketing claim, the answer is yes.
Irish companies with consumer-facing carbon claims need a legal review of their offset portfolio. Many will find it simpler to switch language from "carbon neutral" to "carbon reduced by X% with residual offsets from [specific project]."
Transparency is not just ethical — it is the only legally defensible path.
Michael English is a technology entrepreneur and writer focused on blockchain infrastructure, carbon markets, and enterprise technology. He co-founded IMPT (impt.io), a carbon credit tokenisation platform, and BMIC (bmic.ai). Based in Ireland.