Simeon Brody
On Saturday I spoke at a Carbon Reduction Action Group meeting in York about carbon offsetting. We'd tried to engage a carbon offsetter to speak... and failed.... so we drew lots and I got the short straw and had to present the pro-offsetting perspective. This also meant I had to explain what carbon offsetting actually is.
Based on the understanding that just about everything we do and buy has carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions directly linked to it, and that CO2 emitted here is the same as that emitted in India or Brazil... and that emissions not emitted there are the same as not emitting them anywhere, offsetting is the practice of paying for some carbon not to be emitted because you emitted some... simple, on the face of it. But, it's not that simple.....
Business as usual?
One criticism can be found in the excellent short film Cheat Neutral and many environmentalists suggest it is a mechanism for allowing businesses and individuals to carry on 'business as usual' and pay a small voluntary fine for their wrongdoing. However, if you visit any of the offsetting companies' websites, they all give varying amounts of information about reducing your carbon footprint. For instance, CarbonClear ask you to 'reduce what you can, Clear the rest' and ClimateCare have a low carbon living page with tips and links which should help anyone wanting to reduce their carbon footprint. However, they are in the offsetting business not the personal reduction business.
Some of the projects funded are, on the face of it, ones which reduce levels of CO2 from being emitted. For instance, one project is to refit Philippino mini taxis which have innefficient smoky engines with much cleaner ones which use less fuel, another is funding the building of village-size anaerobic digesters in Kenya which use waste products like dung and food waste to make methane gas for heating and lighting, replacing open wood fires and kerosene 'can and wick' lights. The most ethical companies ensure that the carbon stopped from being emitted is 'additional', ie new projects not funded by other means, and that the process is 'transparent' and only counts the carbon once. The most dubious projects and companies are criticised by Carbon Trade Watch and the UK Government has just announced a Code of Conduct of Best Practice, a 'quality mark' which should give consumers some degree of certainty that the project does actually reduce emissions.
Reduction over offsetting
All of the offsetting companies offer carbon calculators to help you work out how much carbon that flight cost, or your annual gas bill... but if you do a number of them, they can give very different rates for the same polluting activity. And how are the prices per tonne of CO2 worked out? Do these really reflect the damage done?
My advice is that personal reduction is by far the best option. Do the carbon calculators and learn about how much (approximately!) is emitted for different activities but I could not recommend any of the offsetting companies or projects. Far better to switch to renewable electricity, install insulation and energy efficient products, make other lifestyle choices which are lower carbon (diet and transport being the big two)... and then, once you have reduced, you could consider contributing to a project which might help reduce the effects of climate change... and why not make it a local one such as Treesponsability, who would also be happy to have you and your colleagues on one of their planting weekends.
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