Is British Gas misselling ‘green energy’ to its customers?

British Gas may be misleading its customers into thinking they’re getting green energy, when in actuality the company is simply buying carbon credits. Our Gossage Gossip columnist explores British Gas in this wild west in this week’s column. 

There are no laws governing the voluntary carbon offsets market, with critics calling it the “wild west of carbon markets” with “poor transparency.” The booming market is now worth more than $1 billion, after tripling in size last year. Each year the annual COP climate change conferences try to bring some order to this free-for-all chaos. Each year they fail to do so. Enabling unscrupulous companies to get away with making spurious claims to be helping save the planet, when they are doing no such thing.

Right now, British Gas is misleading tens of thousands of customers by selling them “green energy” that may have little or no environmental benefit. The energy giant claims to be reducing its climate footprint by using “carbon credits,” which pump money into environmental work abroad. But almost half the carbon offsets held by British Gas owner Centrica are “junk credits” that were issued under a discredited Chinese scheme dismissed by the UN as a scam.

These “carbon credits” came from a chemical factory in China that was previously forced to deny “gaming the system,” following an international probe into its supposed green credentials. Records from June this year show that 44% of Centrica’s carbon offsets came from Shandong Dongyue Chemical Co Ltd, which produces a type of greenhouse gas, HFC-23, used in fridges and air conditioning. The UN no longer allows Shandong Dongyue to issue HFC-23 credits, but the Chinese company can still sell old credits that were issued between 2007 and 2013. And they have found a willing purchaser.