Book a flight or other travel online these days, and often you will be asked if you want to offset your carbon emissions. The theory behind carbon offsets is that you can make your trip “carbon neutral” by paying someone in India to not emit as much CO2 as you will be emitting while you travel, thereby making your expedition “carbon neutral”.
The whole carbon offset industry has taken a lot of ridicule for very good reasons. When the fad for offsetting carbon really began to take off, a lot of carbon offset companies sprang up, promising to plant trees somewhere to soak up the carbon spewing out the back end of your airplane. In some cases, the tree planting projects did not exist at all. In other cases, there were forestry companies that were planting those trees anyways, and saw selling carbon offsets as an opportunity to make their project even more profitable. Even if the carbon offset project results in a legitimate reduction in CO2 emissions somewhere, critics have rightly pointed out that in order to reduce global emissions to sustainable levels, we ALL need to reduce our emissions. Paying someone else not to emit will not ultimately get the job done. The sale of carbon offsets has rather cynically been compared to the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church.
So, you might understandably be a little surprised when I write that I just purchased 3 tonnes of carbon offsets (click the link to view my certificate: carbon offset certificate May 21 2011 ). No, I haven’t gone soft in the head (I hope). The integrity of the carbon offset market has improved dramatically over the past few years, to the point where if you know what to look for you can actually do some good by purchasing offsets. The most important advance has been the development of rigorous standards and independent auditing to ensure that the carbon reductions being sold are real and not being sold multiple times to different buyers.
The other thing about my purchase that may be a little different is my attitude. I do not see the purchase of offsets as buying me a license to pollute. No matter how many carbon offsets I buy, I will still be working to reduce my own emissions as low as I can. I see the purchase of carbon offsets as a way that I can directly provide funding for clean energy development. Here’s are a couple of real examples of how it works:
A power company in India is replacing generating capacity lost during the Christmas Eve tsunami. The cheapest way for them to do that would be to build coal generating stations. However, instead, they decide to build wind generating stations because the sale of carbon offset credits can compensate for the added expense.
A landfill in China is emitting large quantities of methane into the atmosphere. (As a greenhouse gas, methane (CH4) is over 20 times more potent than CO2.) The availability of funding from the sale of offset credits results in the construction of a landfill gas capture system. Instead of being released to the atmosphere, the CH4 is captured and burned to generate electricity. This has the direct of effect of reducing emissions from the landfill, and the indirect benefit of replacing 5 MW of coal-fired electrical generation. This project (which is the one I purchased carbon credits from) is generating emissions reductions of 134,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.
So, if you want to purchase carbon offsets, how do you make sure you are really contributing to a reduction in CO2 emissions? First – don’t even think about investing in any project that achieves results by planting trees or by preventing forest clearing. There are too many things that can happen to trees (disease, fire, insects, illegal logging, death from climate change) that will release that carbon back into the atmosphere. The second step is to make sure you are choosing a project backed by a good verification standard. Projects certified under the Gold Standard (GS) are generally considered to be the best. While Gold Standard credits tend to be more expensive than those verified under less stringent criteria, their strict requirements and independent UN auditors mean that you can be reasonably sure that the project is generating the emissions reductions that are being claimed.
To get started, you need to find a company to purchase the offsets from. One good place to start is www.climatecatalog.org . They maintain extensive lists of carbon companies and the projects that they are involed in, all of which can be searched and sorted in various ways. Some climate companies simply sell generic credits, without telling you much about how those credits are generated. I would stay away from those, because that just seems a little shady. I want to know where my money is going. Some companies list projects they are involed in, and then sell generic credits that come from a mixture of those projects. This is better, but does not always allow you to determine what standard was used to verify the emission reductions you are supporting. I made my offset purchase from South Pole Carbon Asset Management (www.southpolecarbon.com). They are based in Switzerland, and allow you to purchase credits orginating from specific projects. Here are a few companies to consider:
South Pole (Switzerland) allows you to choose credits from specific projects, some of which are Gold Standard. Currently, gold standard credits cost US$20.70 per tonne.
Planet Air (Canada) sells generic credits, but you can choose which standard you wish to buy. Gold Standard credits currently cost Cdn$33.90 per tonne. Gift credits are also available.
Zero GHG (Canada) includes some Gold Standard credits in its portfolio, but only sells generic credits drawn from all its projects. Credits currently cost Cdn$19 per tonne.
Climate Friendly (Australia) accepts payment in Canadian funds, but like Zero GHG, while it has some Gold Standard projects in its portfolio, it sells only generic credits, which currently cost Cdn$22.46 per tonne.
Happy offsetting!
Personal Climate Change 