Thread by @Robbie_Watt

The Fantasy of Carbon Offsetting - my first peer-reviewed journal article - is out now with Environmental Politics.

How does carbon offsetting retain its seductive appeal, despite all its problems?

bit.ly/39MDDt2

Thread below 🧵
Thanks helpers 🙏
DM for a copy 🗞️

Carbon offsetting still features in many corporate, government and international climate policies. We know about the limits, flaws, and scandals of carbon offsets, but this does not stop it. 2/10

Despite everything we know, #carbonoffsetting is baked into this phase of the capitalist ‘green economy’. It has become institutionally embedded through #climate policy circles and it offers companies and governments cheap ways to appear green. 3/10

The paper argues that carbon offsetting continues partly due to *fantasy*, which is roughly speaking the way by which ideology takes its failures into account in advance. 4/10

I delved into literature on psycho-analytical ideology critique. It posits that fantasy provides coordinates for our views of reality, while generating libidinal investments. 5/10

Much has been written already about offsetting’s emotionality, its normativity, its post-political molecular carbon dioxide fetish.
I turned to data collected for my PhD: interviews with folks in offset markets. Could the transcripts shine more light on the fantasy? 6/10

The data, linked to the theory, offer glimpses of the fantasy with 3 headlines.

1)The gap between the spectacular portrayal of carbon offsetting and its deficiency in practice is experienced as ‘symptom’. To manage this symptom: cynicism, and disavowal of failure. 7/10

2) The fantasy is social, circulating through offset markets populated by experts who proclaim that offsets are genuine and legitimate. This is the sanctioned authority of the Other. People call on the Other to believe for them. 8/10

3) The carbon offset offers the promise of ‘enjoyment’. The offset will never properly fulfil this ‘enjoyment’, but its illusory promise can nevertheless set in motion … our desire. 9/10

And finally, that is why we should take the carbon offsetting fantasy seriously: because desire and promises of enjoyment are social phenomena. This is about how we relate to capitalism, ecology, the climate, and each other. In different ways, we are all implicated. 10/10

Thanks to everyone who helped to make this article possible, including @MatPaterson @SarahBracking @danbrockington @Env_Pol @MiningandCSR @GlobalDevInst @UoMPolitics @GraemeHayes @SteffenBoehm @anthfletch

This article builds on the work of many people, including @SianSullivanUK @wim_carton @KevinClimate @torbenja @Jodi7768 @KateErvine @ilankapoor @harrietbulkeley @stripple @PeterJNewell_ @DianaLiv Thanks to you all.

A copy of the paper can be downloaded for free at robbiewatt.net