The idea that we can mitigate current carbon emissions by “offsetting” them with carbon reduction initiatives elsewhere has become central to government and business responses to climate change. But it is an idea that we need to seriously question. The offset strategy essentially assumes that the release of carbon stored by ancient biology hundreds of millions of years ago can be mitigated in the current active carbon cycle. Since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, offsetting has become the preferred option globally. The concept of “net zero” carbon emissions is also at the heart of New Zealand’s official climate response and its emissions trading scheme. How this might change under a new government is difficult to predict, as the different positions taken by the negotiating parties could lead, as one commentator has put it, to a “coalition of climate chaos.” (Mike Joy)