Carbon offset markets allow the rich to emit climate-warming gases while financial intermediaries profit. By fostering the fiction that others can be paid to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) instead, it undermines efforts to do so. Committing to achieve “net zero” carbon emissions has become a major climate change policy goal. But most climate scientists agree the target is dangerously misleading. Ostensibly promoting decarbonisation, it actually allows carbon emissions to continue rising.