Millions of carbon credits are generated by overestimating forest preservation, study finds

This means that many of the "carbon credits" bought by companies to balance out emissions are not tied to real-world forest preservation as claimed.

An international team of scientists and economists led by the University of Cambridge and VU Amsterdam found that millions of carbon credits are based on crude calculations that inflate the conservation successes of voluntary REDD+ projects.

Consequently, many tons of greenhouse gas emissions considered "offset" by trees that would not otherwise exist have, in fact, only added to our planetary carbon debt, say researchers.

Link here for the entire article from PHYS.org