Letter from our CEO: response to the recent audit by the BC Office of the Auditor General

March 28, 2013

 

Dear Valued Partners and Friends,

I am writing today to voice my concern over yesterday's release by the the British Columbia Office of the Auditor General's audit of Carbon Neutral Government. In addition to calling into question the carbon neutrality claims of the provincial government, there was criticism of the credibility of the offsets purchased by the Pacific Carbon Trust. Like the Ministry of Environment, we too, reject the findings of the audit and agree that the OAG lacks the understanding and expertise to audit carbon offset projects. The Auditor-General chose to ignore the advice of six international expert organizations he called on to provide input. One of his own advisors resigned because he felt his input was being ignored by the Auditor General.

Before a carbon offset project reaches the market, the project is reviewed at every stage of the process by qualified subject matter experts with years of experience. The documentation to bring an offset project to fruition is—even for those of us in the field—intensely technical, detailed, and can be formidable in its volume. These are documents that only experts are qualified to review, assess, and critique. The Office of the Auditor General isn't qualified to perform this audit and I have spoken out publicly about this in the last few days.

I want to assure you that we stand by our offering. All of our projects are high quality: fully transparent, validated and verified by independent third parties, and developed to best-in-class international standards. Investment in our projects from likeminded individuals and organizations has helped to prevent a significant amount of emissions from entering the atmosphere and has also helped to reinforce our home province, British Columbia, as a climate change leader and as a hub for innovation in this emerging sector.

If you have questions about what you have been reading or hearing in the news, please email us at i...@offsetters.ca and we'd be happy to review them with you.

 

Sincerely,

James Tansey

President & CEO, Offsetters