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Carbon Offsetting: Sustaining Consumption?

Author

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  • Heather Lovell

    (Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and Sustainability, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland)

  • Harriet Bulkeley

    (Department of Geography, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, England)

  • Diana Liverman

    (Environmental Change Institute, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, England)

Abstract

In this paper we examine how theories of sustainable and ethical consumption help us to understand a new, rapidly expanding type of consumer product designed to mitigate climate change: carbon offsets. The voluntary carbon offset market grew by 200% between 2005 and 2006, and there are now over 150 retailers of voluntary carbon offsets worldwide. Our analysis concentrates on the production and consumption of carbon offsets, drawing on ideas from governmentality and political ecology about how narratives and technologies are used to create particular types of consumer subjectivities and shape consumer choice. We critically examine three narratives that offset producers are using to position carbon offsets and examine how these narratives are shaping circuits of carbon offset production and consumption. We assess the implications for the future governance of voluntary carbon offset markets and for the study of alternative consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Lovell & Harriet Bulkeley & Diana Liverman, 2009. "Carbon Offsetting: Sustaining Consumption?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(10), pages 2357-2379, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:10:p:2357-2379
    DOI: 10.1068/a40345
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Jim Ormond, 2015. "New Regimes of Responsibilization: Practicing Product Carbon Footprinting in the New Carbon Economy," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 91(4), pages 425-448, October.
    8. Judith Krauss, 2017. "What is sustainable cocoa? Constellations of commercial, socioeconomic and environmental priorities associated with a polysemic concept," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 092017, GDI, The University of Manchester.

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