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Is carbon offsetting a con?
What in the World
Jan 9, 2025

Carbon offsetting is a way to try to balance carbon emissions. It’s when an individual, company or governments invest in projects that try to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, to compensate for their own carbon footprint.

Many of the schemes - like planting trees, protecting forests or switching to cleaner fuels - are set up in places like Africa or South America.

But how do these schemes work in practice? A paper published in 2024 in the science journal Nature found that few schemes led to a “real emission reductions“. Are they just a distraction or worse - a con? BBC climate and science reporter Esme Stallard answers our questions.

And Joshua Gabriel Oluwaseyi, a 24 year old climate activist in Nigeria, gives us his view on the impact carbon offsetting schemes have had in Nigeria - and whether he thinks they are worth doing.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Julia Ross-Roy and Maria Clara Montoya Video Journalist: Baldeep Chahal Editor: Verity Wilde

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USAID: Can the world live without it?

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is under fire. It is the world’s biggest donor and spends billions of dollars a year, funding programmes around the world, like fighting malaria in Bangladesh, clearing unexploded landmines in Cambodia and Laos and providing medical supplies in Sudan.

But President Trump says it is run by “radical lunatics” and he and billionaire Elon Musk, who’s got the job of trying to slash American government spending, want to shut it down. They have paused almost all international spending for 90 days and issued “stop work” orders to their staff. BBC journalist Nathalia Jimenez tells us what USAID does - and why the Trump administration wants to close it.

A large proportion of USAID funding goes towards healthcare and HIV medication in sub-Saharan Africa. Makuochi Okafor, the BBC’s Africa Health correspondent tells us what impact closing USAID could have in this region.

Anselm Gibbs, a BBC reporter based in Trinidad and Tobago, tells us about programmes USAID funds in the Caribbean. And Hilde Deman from Search for Common Ground, an international NGO that uses USAID funding in countries affected by violent conflict, talks about the impact to their work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: William Lee Adams Producers: Benita Barden and Julia Ross-Roy Editor: Rosanna La Falce


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Is carbon offsetting a con?

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