England squad turns to Brazil for help… offsetting carbon emissions

The England World Cup squad has kicked their carbon footprint into touch after the FA announced it has offset the carbon emissions from the team's flights to the World Cup in South Africa and their pre-tournament training camp in Austria.

The move represents a major endorsement for the carbon offset industry in general and the government's Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) in particular, which certified the carbon credits purchased by the FA.

The offsets were acquired from a small hydropower station in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso that has been approved through the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Under the Quality Assurance Scheme only offsets from projects that comply with standards set out by the CDM can carry the government-backed seal of approval.

The government has said that the labelling scheme is designed to tackle the cowboy operators that have undermined confidence in the carbon offset market and provide purchasers with confidence that their carbon offsets equate to real and verifiable emission reductions.

FA General Secretary Alex Horne said that purchasing offsets carrying the Quality Assurance Mark meant that the squad could "be confident that the emissions from our flights will be fairly offset".

The FA also recommended that all England fans travelling to the FIFA World Cup who wish to offset their emissions should look to use the government's Quality Assurance Mark.

However, some carbon offset firms have argued that the QAS standards are too stringent and exclude many legitimate smaller projects that can still deliver substantial emission reductions.