---
title: "Carbon compensation | Elina Kajosaari | Negotiator 56"
titleOriginal: "Päästökompensointi | Elina Kajosaari | Neuvottelija 56"
episodeNumber: "56"
guest: "Elina Kajosaari"
datePublished: 2021-01-07
duration: "39:11"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k"
captionsVtt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep56-paastokompensointi-elina-kajosaari/captions.en.vtt
captionsSrt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep56-paastokompensointi-elina-kajosaari/captions.en.srt
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["free_speech_society","investing_markets"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from the MacWhisper SRT transcript, YouTube metadata and the neuvottelija.fi episode record. Chapter timecodes are taken from the transcript; no caption files are published with this page."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/62-neuvottelija-56-paastokompensointi-elina-kajosaari"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep56-paastokompensointi-elina-kajosaari/
---
# Carbon compensation | Elina Kajosaari | Negotiator 56

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=0s) The Wild West of carbon markets
- [02:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=159s) SDG 13 and capitalism's design flaw
- [05:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=319s) The tragedy of the commons, applied to carbon
- [07:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=471s) Forests, biochar and what actually matters
- [10:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=626s) Reduce, avoid, compensate — in that order
- [12:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=778s) What the monthly fee buys, and the science panel
- [15:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=933s) Fake credits and a ten per cent pass rate
- [18:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=1084s) Why sequestration is easier to audit than reduction
- [20:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=1237s) The bathtub: closing the tap and pulling the plug
- [23:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=1395s) Is compensation a service or a money collection?
- [25:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=1547s) Cleaning the Baltic Sea: Miettinen's analogy
- [28:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=1700s) Credits, standards and how the market is organised
- [30:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=1851s) Multipliers, over-compensation and portfolio thinking
- [33:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=2012s) Talking to climate sceptics
- [36:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=2162s) What the pandemic year revealed about emissions
- [38:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k&t=2312s) Ten thousand kilos a year, and one flight

## Summary

Compensate CEO Elina Kajosaari explains why the carbon sequestration market is the Wild West and what verifying quality compensation actually takes: of roughly a hundred projects drawn from the best of the two best-known standards, only about ten per cent passed Compensate's own criteria. The episode covers the design flaw in capitalism that leaves climate harm out of prices, the correct order of reduction and compensation, over-compensation through quality multipliers, and the Finnish legal ambiguity that froze the whole sector.

## What is discussed

- **The design flaw.** Climate harm never reaches the price, and solving that through policy is slow — so a voluntary carbon price has to be built by consumers and companies.
- **The commons, inverted.** Where shared grazing land needs a price to prevent overuse, emitting carbon costs the individual nothing — so a charge matching the harm must run alongside the market.
- **The order matters.** Reduce first, avoid second, compensate the remainder — and compensation itself drives reduction by making the burden of each choice visible.
- **Ten per cent.** Of about a hundred projects taken from the best of VCS and Gold Standard, only around a tenth passed Compensate's criteria on closer examination.
- **Credits from forests never at risk.** Fake credits are hard to identify without expertise, and large companies are among those defrauded.
- **Four criteria plus one.** Climate integrity, human rights, biodiversity and partner quality — and a check that the benefit is not double counted for a state.
- **Multipliers and over-buying.** An internal rating scores whether a credit really equals a tonne; Compensate buys extra credits so the promised effect is genuinely delivered.
- **The bathtub.** Decades of pouring have made the tub overflow. Closing the tap is not enough — the plug has to be pulled and spilled water cleaned up.
- **Frozen by ambiguity.** Whether compensation is for consideration or gratuitous decides if it falls under the Money Collection Act; companies have stopped compensating while the question hangs.
- **What lockdown showed.** Near-total shutdown cut emissions only minimally, which places the challenge deep in structures rather than in individual behaviour alone.

## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Päästökompensointi | Elina Kajosaari | Neuvottelija 56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVq03aVw8k).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/62-neuvottelija-56-paastokompensointi-elina-kajosaari).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Carbon compensation | Elina Kajosaari | Negotiator 56, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep56-paastokompensointi-elina-kajosaari/, 2021-01-07. For quotes include episode 56 and timestamp.