After good old Mr (Hilary) Benn gave out Defra’s voluntary code of conduct for carbon offsetters this week, offsetters are now keen to give Mr Benn a warm round of applause.

Eight voluntary carbon offset companies – The CarbonNeutral Company, Carbon Clear, ClimateCare, Climate Friendly, co2balance, NativeEnergy, targetneutral and Terrapass – have announced they’re welcoming the code.

Here’s what they say:

The beyond-compliance carbon market, which kick-started carbon trading
in the mid-nineties, is global, cross-sectoral and growing extremely
fast. The industry has professionalised over the last 5 years, and has
seen in the launch of new quality standards for VERs [Verified Emissions Reductions] including the Gold Standard (GS VER) and the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), with registries for the VCS and GS in development along with a planned project database linking the two.

We firmly believe that there is increased interest from people and
business in acting beyond compliance, i.e. reducing emissions because
they want to not because they have to. This is the carbon market
coming of age, and we look forward to working with the UK Government
to keep them informed participants in the global development of this
innovative and fast-paced emergent market is one that is already
generating important investments and innovative solutions towards
tackling climate change.