City Council has adopted the Offset Credits Policy to govern the approach for achieving net zero Corporate emissions in 2040 and subsequent years. This policy clarifies the “net” of net zero by defining whether and how the Corporation will purchase and/or sell carbon offsets in a science-based, fiscally responsible way as we work toward the net zero goal. The Offset Credits Policy supersedes the City’s previous “Carbon Credit Policy”, which is no longer in force.
The Offset Credits Policy applies only to City corporate emission sources, meaning emissions from City-owned assets like buildings and fleet vehicles. It does not apply to community-wide emission sources. The policy makes clear the Corporation’s primary objective in pursuit of net zero is reducing emissions from City-owned assets, rather than relying on offsets. The Corporation will only use offset credits to achieve net zero if emissions from City-owned assets have not been reduced to zero in 2040 and subsequent years. Consistent with the leading science on net zero, offsets credits must be for activities that permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it, (for example, deep underground as basalt rock via mineralization or in a deep saline aquifer).