Carbon offsets is like a doctor telling a grossly obese patient to mitigate the problem with periodic fat removal. This gives the patient a false hope that he doesn't need to completely change how he lives.
That will be extremely hard at first, since they are probably starting from zero. However, as they get fitter, they will be able to burn more calories per day via exercise.
Of course, diet + exercise is much better than just one or the other.
We have to remove ~ 25% of the carbon currently in the atmosphere, or we’re screwed.
We definitely can’t reach that goal without carbon capture. We almost certainly can’t reach it without cutting emissions by >> 90%.