A charge that ride-hailing app Seize prices its clients to mitigate the local weather impression of their journey relies on discredited carbon offsets and exposes the corporate to greenwashing threat, Malaysian non-profit RimbaWatch has warned.
The Singapore-headquartered mobility agency has enabled its clients to neutralise the emissions of their journey or deliveries since 2021, with a charge of S$0.10 (US$0.07) for every journey that goes in direction of the acquisition of carbon credit.
Seize’s carbon offsetting operate permits clients to offset the emissions of rides and deliveries by paying S$0.10 a visit. Picture: Seize
The offsetting operate has neutralised the emissions of greater than 5 million journeys and saved about 2,300 tonnes of greenhouse gasoline emissions, in line with Seize’s web site.
The carbon credit Seize sources fund initiatives licensed by Verra, a requirements physique that confronted heavy scrutiny final yr over the credibility of its methodology and the credit it provides.
Seize buys carbon credit from the Katingan Mentaya Undertaking, a peatland forest safety and restoration venture in Central Kalimantan, which RimbaWatch highlighted has been criticised over claims made about its effectiveness in lowering emissions. Seize claims that the venture prevents the discharge of greenhouse gases equal to 447 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over 60 years.
The additionality of Katingan Mentaya Undertaking – that’s, its capacity to cut back emissions that might not have been achieved with out the venture – was known as into query in an investigation by Greenpeace in 2021, which discovered that the baseline calculation was primarily based on forest that was already legally protected, so no emissions reductions happened. Greenpeace’s findings had been adopted up by an investigation by Nikkei Asia.
Permian World, a carbon finance agency that manages the venture, has rejected the allegations and defended its local weather impression.
In a press release, Seize advised Eco-Enterprise that its carbon initiatives are “rated and verified by a number of respected carbon credit score businesses and suppliers,” citing Sylvera and BeZero as having rated the Katingan Mentaya Undertaking as “AA” and “A”, respectively.
Carbon exchanges in Southeast Asia together with Bursa Malaysia’s Carbon Trade and Temasek-backed Local weather Affect X in Singapore, have listed the venture, the corporate added.
A Seize spokesperson advised Eco-Enterprise that though there are at present no universally aligned carbon market requirements, the corporate didn’t need to rule out carbon credit as “a official monetary instrument for long-term environmental good.”
“We’ll proceed to carry a excessive bar to our suppliers to make sure our chosen initiatives help this meant end result, and hope the trade will maintain debating the subject and work constructively collectively in direction of a decrease carbon future,” a spokesperson stated.
RimbaWatch stated that whereas it helps Seize for setting a net-zero by 2040 dedication and for pledging to decarbonise its fleet of hundreds of thousands of automobiles, “the usage of offsets … can’t be part of a reputable net-zero technique”.
Seize launched the offsetting function just below a yr after rival Gojek launched its personal offsetting service for its clients, and 4 months after information emerged that Seize was hatching a plan to decarbonise.
Seize’s offsetting function for its clients just isn’t a part of the corporate’s personal dedication to neutralise its emissions, which focuses on the electrification of automobiles and route optimisation to cut back emissions, added the corporate spokesperson.
The place the corporate can’t scale back emissions, it follows the Science Based mostly Targets initiative (SBTi)’s steerage on carbon offsetting, though Seize stated that it doesn’t purchase any carbon credit in direction of its carbon neutrality goal.
Seize dedicated to be carbon impartial by 2040 in 2022, a pledge the corporate has stated was troublesome to make due to projected enterprise development and nascent renewable power capability and electrical automobile charging infrastructure in Southeast Asia, amongst different obstacles.
RimbaWatch stated that Seize ought to align with rising worldwide requirements round offsetting and think about abandoning offsets utterly – except they’re promoted solely as a voluntary donation to conservation which doesn’t affect Seize’s emissions stock or local weather motion.
The United Nations UN Excessive-Degree Professional Group on company net-zero pledges said in 2022 that firms shouldn’t “purchase low cost credit that always lack integrity as an alternative of instantly chopping their very own emissions throughout their worth chain”.
The group has warned that carbon credit can’t contribute to emissions reductions to attain net-zero targets, and may solely be used after targets are met.
The European Union just lately banned commercials which use carbon offsets to assert a product is “carbon impartial”.
The most recent controversy to hit a carbon offset venture emerged this month, when a report from Human Rights Watch, a non-profit, alleged that Indigenous individuals in Cambodia confronted pressured evictions and prison prices after their ancestral lands had been designated for a carbon offset venture.
RimbaWatch famous that firms corresponding to oil main Shell, low-cost airline EasyJet and shopper items big Nestle have deserted carbon offsets altogether, whereas firms which proceed to assert carbon neutrality via offsets are dealing with authorized motion, together with a US$1 billion lawsuit towards Delta airways.
