For anyone wanting to help the enviroment and to reduce their individual carbon footprint or negative impact on the environment, the first step is to become more energy efficient in your home, with the kind of car you drive, the lifestyle you live. By becoming more efficient you will be greatly reducing your carbon footprint and be saving money on your electric bill.
However, there are many activities that cannot be avoided, such as driving a car, and living in a home that still produces carbon dioxide. It is all but impossible at this time to completely eliminate all activities that contribute either directly or indirectly to carbon emissions. So, carbon offsets are a way to further reduce carbon emissions.
Carbon Offsets have been created to “offset” or reduce the effect the impact of these activities. An average-sized American home produces 27,000 lbs of carbon, and by purchasing enough carbon offsets, you can “neutralize” the carbon produced from your home. An offset happens when you invest or fund activities that reduce carbon in the enviroment.
What is a Carbon Offset?
A carbon offset is actually a contract to reduce carbon emissions. One carbon offset equals the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of global warming. Certified offset can be purchased from commercial or non-profit groups for $1 – $30 per ton of carbon. By investing in an offset project you help support projects that reduce carbon emissions. For example, a wind farm generates clean energy, which reduces carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants. In order to finance its operations, a wind farm can sell these reductions in the form of carbon offsets.
There are hundreds of different types of carbon reduction projects.
- renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro-electric, biofuel)
- methane capture (converting land fills to energy)
- forestry projects
- preserving wildlife habitats
- planting trees (re-forestation, tree farms…)
Things to Consider When Evaluating Carbon Offset Programs:
- What potential does the project have for income generation?
- What effects will a project have on future changes inland use and could conflicts arise from this?
- Reductions in carbon emissions should be additional to reductions that would have happened otherwise.
- Offsets should also be real, meaning that reductions in one place don’t just mean an increase in emissions elsewhere.
- Third party verification is important. A third party should review the activities and calculations and confirm that they are valid and accurate.
A good resource is The State of the Voluntary Carbon Market published by New Carbon Finance.
Veryfiying Carbon Offsets
Since carbon offsets are relatively new, there is yet to be a standardized way of verifying that the carbon offsets you buy are accurately
measured. Fromal stantards are now being developed to determine what makes a valid offset. On the international level, the Kyoto Protocol
has approved carbon offsets as a way for governments and private copmanies to earn carbon credits which can be traded the market. It created the Clean Development Mechnanism (CDM), to verify and measure projects to ensure to they produce authentic benefits and are genuinely “additional” activities that would not otherwise have been undertaken.
Challenges/Problems:
- Carbon offsets can be viewed as an excuse to not change our behavior, continue to pollute and producce carbon emissions
- Some offset programs use questionable or fraudulent methods to calculate their claims in reducing carbon emissions.
- Carbon offset market is unregulated
Carbon offsets are a way for you to take responsibility for the impact you have on our enviroment and contribute even more to reduce carbon emissions. After choosing carefully the carbon offset program you want to invest in, ultimately the result of any offset project will be the global reduction of carbon emissions.
green travel | jean July 11, 2008 | 
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