Our preferred pathway to climate neutrality combines purchasing 100% renewables with a variety of offsets that meet address two or more of the following conditions: (a) directly sequester carbon or contribute to the avoidance of emissions, (b) support local climate justice and resilience, (c) provide investment in systemic change that promotes climate-justice practices. 

Carbon offsets can either directly work towards sequestering carbon from the atmosphere (direct offsets) or can work by eliminating or reducing fossil fuel use via efficiency or investment in alternative energy uses or practices (indirect). Indirect offsets, then, can work doubly by investing in practices that will eventually reduce the need for offsets. Indirect offsets can also be invested locally in Just Energy Alternatives which promote climate justice. According to the Climate Action Collaborative, informed by principles of a Just Transition, climate justice “requires freedom from domination and exploitation, violences at the heart of climate catastrophe,” and in that, we must work to “support grassroots, democratic institutions that ensure local sovereignty over energy, land, water, food, health, and education.” Offsets described here will describe the ways in which they meet the three conditions for a just offset, and will be prioritized based on the synergy between these three conditions.