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CARBON OFFSETTING is in vogue. The practice involves giving money to a green charity that takes action, such as planting trees or building solar panels, to stop emissions entering the atmosphere or to remove them from it. In 2018 around $296m was spent buying the equivalent of 98m tonnes of CO₂ offsets in the “voluntary” market (ie, outside government-mandated schemes). That is roughly twice the volume and value from the year before, and a seven-year high, according to Forrest Trends, a lobby group.

The boom has been aided by corporate demand. In 2019 EasyJet, Shell and other large emitters announced offset buying schemes. These are usually for firms going carbon-neutral (offset all emissions) or working to a net-zero emissions target (reduce emissions, then offset the rest). From 2021 an industry-wide scheme will mean that airlines start offsetting some of the growth in emissions from flights.