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Carbon offsetsare one of the more contentious entities in the green universe--they often undoubtedly achieve good, desirable aims, like the mass planting of trees or investment in carbon emissions-reducing technology. But they can also act as a sort of large scale guilt-reliever, a cheap way for a business or an individual to 'give back' to the environment without correcting their polluting behavior.
Hence the C.R.O.C. Standing for Carbon Regulatory Offset Committee (o puns), it's Greenpeace's parody of a pro-carbon offset, big industry lobbying group. See, during the process of drafting climate legislation, real lobbying groups are aggressively trying to water down the bill by giving polluters what's essentially a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card--carbon offsets. This makes it cheaper and easier for polluters to continue to delay significant carbon-cutting measures, all while appearing socially and environmentally responsible.
This video pretty much sums up the ridiculousness of allowing large-scale offsets.
Note that offsets aren't a purely bad thing--far from it. Put it this way: buying an offset after, say, you take a flight for a business trip, is a good, conscionable thing to do. But using offsets to validate flying all over the country isn't. They should be viewed as a supplement to real climate action, not the focus of the plan. Just like it'd be ideal if you found a way to telecommute to far-flung business trips than buy offsets, it'd be far better if the government embraced stricter carbon emission regulation and clean energy funding.
Just don't think offsets can solve the problem. And don't fall for the CROC.
