Maintaining carbon market integrity: why renewable energy certificates are not offsets

This brief demonstrates that Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) sold in either voluntary or mandatory environmental markets are not equivalent to GHG emission offsets. The first
section of this brief defines and provides an overview of GHG emission offsets and RECs. The second section describes the relationship between renewable energy and emissions reported by the electric power industry. The third section presents the problems created by treating RECs as offsets. The final section outlines OQI