Declare a Moratorium on Carbon Offsets

Sign This Petition

First Name
Last Name
Email *
Zip/Postal Code *

United States

Comments
- You may receive email updates from The Natural History Museum, the sponsor of this petition.
- Edit Subscription Preferences Close Preferences
- - Opt in to email updates from The Natural History Museum

Declare a Moratorium on Carbon Offsets

United Nations Convention on Biodiversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat

For decades, corporations and governments have promoted carbon offsets as a climate solution. But offsets don’t reduce emissions—they shift responsibility. These schemes allow major polluters to continue business as usual by investing in carbon-absorbing projects elsewhere, often leading to the violent displacement of Indigenous and local communities.

As global leaders meet at the UN COP16 in Colombia to evaluate carbon offset policies, the inaugural cohort of Red Natural History Fellows join the Indigenous Environmental Network and other allies in demanding an end to these ineffective and harmful practices.

Add your voice: demand real solutions, not false fixes, for climate justice.

Sponsored by

The Natural History Museum

To: United Nations Convention on Biodiversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat
From: [Your Name]

As COP16 and COP29 convene, I am deeply concerned that carbon offsetting policies remain central to the UN’s climate strategies, despite clear evidence of their harm and ineffectiveness. These policies allow polluters to claim environmental leadership without addressing the root causes of climate change.

Carbon offsets have a track record of displacing Indigenous and other local communities, enabling exploitative land grabs. Since the introduction of REDD in 2007, emissions have continued to rise, forests are being destroyed, communities are being devastated, and vulnerable ecosystems are under severe pressure.

The carbon offset initiatives now advancing under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement risk sparking another global land grab. According to GRAIN, over 9 million hectares—equivalent to the size of Portugal—have already been earmarked for carbon credits since 2016, often impacting the poor while generating billions for investors.

I join the growing chorus of voices calling for an immediate moratorium on carbon offsets. We must reject carbon colonialism and demand that governments and corporations take genuine responsibility for restoring our air, water, and land.