(Reuters] – Carbon offsets enable the largest polluters around the globe to pursue business plans that pose a threat to global climate goals. Greenpeace International head, Greenpeace International spoke in an interview.

According to an industry task force, the model allows polluting businesses to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing credits for projects that reduce climate-warming CO2 from other sources. This could potentially be worth up to $50 billion in 2030.

Greenpeace and other environmental advocates claim this encourages big emitters such as oil giants to continue increasing their carbon emissions, while avoiding divesting from hydrocarbons which are a main source of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

There is no time to make offsets. At the Reuters Impact conference, Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace’s executive director stated that we are currently in a climate crisis and need to phase out fossil fuels.

It takes trees 20 years to mature, so offsets are not possible right away. Wildfires may cause a halt to any reductions.

She said that offsetting programs… were pure “greenwash” so companies (oil companies) can carry on doing the same thing and continue making a profit.

There were also problems with the way credits are counted.

CarbonPlan is a research group that examines the reliability of offset programs. In April, it found that 29% (of the $2 billion in California forest carbon offsets) overestimated how much they offset. It analyzed 30 million tonnes of forests, or approximately $410 million.

Greenpeace’s warning arrives at a crucial moment for voluntary carbon markets, whose advocates acknowledge the need to be more transparent and accountable.

Next month, U.N. climate conference delegates will work to create a market for offsets and emission reduction projects to fight against net greenhouse gas emissions of zero by 2050. This is to avoid some of the worst impacts and to reduce climate change.

Companies will have to stop investing any additional oil, gas or coal supply projects if we are to get net zero as soon as possible, according to the International Energy Agency, which issued its harshest warning yet.

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