Quotes in Reuters article refer to carbon offsetting in the past tense

Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk

LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - A growing carbon offset market is trying to woo the public and companies with new ways and standards to cut their contribution to climate change, while dispelling continued doubts that such schemes do any real good.
The offset market is dominated by companies that fund emissions cuts, often in a developing country, thereby generating emission reduction credits that they sell on to customers in the West.
That voluntary carbon market sold about 65 million tonnes of avoided carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2007, worth some $330 million, but is still dogged by criticisms that it lacks transparency.
"We started off as an offset charity but soon realised all the complications that came with it. The whole market is shrouded in controversy," said the chief executive of C-Change Trust, Jonathan Ekin.
"We go to companies and tell them to forget about offsetting. It's a dying breed, like the dotcom boom."
Instead, the trust asks businesses to acknowledge their emissions of the greenhouse gas through a charitable donation of 10 pounds a tonne.
The group then invests the profits into the UK education system, investing in renewables to reduce the overall carbon footprint of schools, Ekin said.
"People are looking for alternatives. Offsetting was something that worked a while back but now it has a negative undertone. If you want to buy credits, you don't know where they have come from. That is why it is so controversial," Ekin said.