She is 16-years-old, and she already has a phenomenon named after her called the “Greta Thunberg effect”. It refers to the huge increase in individuals and businesses choosing to offset their emissions by investing in carbon-reducing projects in developing countries. Ever since Thunberg’s Fridays 4 Future movement took off, agencies who work with large corporations have also seen a spike in investment in carbon offsetting over the last 18 months.
ClimateCare, a company that provides programs to help organizations offset residual carbon emissions, has seen the amount of carbon offset increase from about 2m tonnes to 20m tonnes at that time.
Smaller organizations have also reported massive spikes in offsetting. Caroline Pomeroy, the director of the NGO Climate Stewards, which offsets emissions for individuals and small businesses, said income from individuals offsetting had increased by 156%, year on year, and that there had been an 80% increase in income from businesses and charities offsetting.
These two organizations represent just a couple of the many that have reported huge growth in carbon offsetting, and it’s thanks, in part, to the work of a teenager. Bravo!
