What do you mean by compensation?

Not all emissions are avoidable. However, they can be compensated for, for example, by preserving intact natural areas. In these areas, large quantities of CO2 are bound in living biomass. The CO2 storage capacity of areas in ecosystems can be calculated. A direct link between compensation volume and natural area is thus possible. For example, the temperate rainforest is the world champion in CO2 sequestration. Wilderness International has researched how much CO2 is bound by the huge virgin forest trees: On an area of 128 m2, the temperate rainforest in our protected areas binds 13 tons of CO2. This corresponds to the annual average consumption of a European.

The word "compensation" does imply that the emitted CO2 is reabsorbed somewhere else. This is the case with our forests, but still to an unknown extent, since we have still not been able to record the increment satisfactorily. Therefore, we can only state numerically how much carbon is already sequestered and will remain sequestered through protection.

The same applies to many other projects: Solar stoves also do not bind CO2, but only prevent wood from being burned for cooking and thus emitting further CO2. In addition, we have no manufacturing costs, energy and raw material consumption for the forest.

More importantly, the goal of offsetting should not only be to offset CO2 and thus stop global warming, but to stop climate change as a whole and preserve life on Earth itself. We can only do this by using the many important functions that forests have for stable climate, the biodiversity they harbor, and the livelihood they provide, which we can only maintain by protecting existing, intact forests. You can also read more about this in question 15. How does the rainforest offset my CO2 emissions?