Using forest carbon credits to offset emissions in the downstream business

A forthcoming report by Concawe, entitled Using Forest Carbon Credits to Offset Emissions in the Downstream Business, investigated whether, and how, forest carbon credits can be used to offset emissions from the European refining and road transport sectors. Forest carbon plays a major role in the global carbon cycle, with emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry amounting to around 10% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Based on an analysis of forest carbon markets and changes therein, several options to use carbon credits in the refining and road transport sector were explored. The report shows that current policy conditions are not generally conducive to the use of voluntary carbon credits in the refining sector since the sector is covered by the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS), and needs to obtain carbon emission allowances for the sector's total CO₂ emissions. Voluntary carbon credits could be purchased to offset residual emissions but they would not currently be recognized in the EU ETS.