Sell Me Your Climate Bombs – September 2020

NPR

A type of greenhouse gas known as R12 refrigerant, is being banned due to its lethal effects on the atmosphere. The NPR Planet Money Podcast talks with Meredith Fowlie, Energy Institute Faculty Director, on the growing market of carbon offset credit.

“There was a controversial situation – it was a different kind of refrigerant (HFC-23), which is a really powerful greenhouse gas and it produces a bi-product when you make refrigerants. But because it was so lucrative to burn offsets by destroying HFC-23s, you had some companies in India and China who realized it made sense to make more, in order to get paid, to destroy them…It just does remind you that there can be some pretty perverse and unanticipated outcome.”

Photo: npr.org