Offsetting chief warns of carbon cowboys

" Even worse for the fledgling industry, many environmentalists are increasingly opposed to offsetting because they fear companies are opting for cheap and ineffectual swap schemes instead of cutting their CO2 output."

HSBC, the global banking group which promised to go carbon neutral in 2005, says its experiences of trying to offset carbon led it to draw some harsh conclusions.

"The police, the fraud squad and trading standards need to be looking at this," Francis Sullivan, an environment adviser to the bank, told the FT.

From The Guardian