The UK Government is to issue a kitemark for accredited carbon offsetting schemes this autumn.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is currently working on a revised Code of Best Practice for offsetting companies. The Code will be voluntary, but Defra hopes operators of genuine carbon offsetting schemes will use the resulting quality mark to distinguish their programmes from bogus ones.

The Code may also be used by companies that although they don’t offer carbon offsets themselves, buy from suppliers that do, thus promoting a carbon-reduced supply chain.

“People need to be sure that when they buy an offsetting product the emissions reductions are actually taking place, which is why we are developing this Code, which will be accompanied by a quality mark for accredited products, said Minister for climate change, biodiversity and waste Joan Ruddock.

The Code will be voluntary, meaning that offsetting providers or companies that sell offsets alongside their goods and services will be able to choose whether they want to seek accreditation for some or all of their products.

The code will be based on Certified Emission Credits, regulated by the EU under the Kyoto protocol for climate change and adopted by the EU. Despite lobbying from the sector, Defra has decided to exclude unregulated Voluntary Emission Credits from the Code.

Carbon offsetting is based on the principal of emissions trading. A polluter can buy emission credits from an accredited organisation that runs programmes to reduce the net volume of carbon and carbon-equivalent emissions.

While much of this trading is conducted at business -to-business level, consumers are also being urged to participate in schemes such as GoCarbonFree.