Carbon Offset - Save the Environment
Summary: Describing the retail offsets market is not easy. No one can say with certainty how many offsets have been sold in the retail offsets market for carbon neutrality purposes. Retail offset providers face several challenges in supplying credible, cost-effective offsets to consumers. Offset projects generally result in a “stream” of emissions reductions throughout the project’s life.
by Faye Mallett
As popular scientist David Suzuki defines it, “carbon neutral” is an “easy way to take responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) we create every time we drive our cars, take a plane, or turn on our computers.” Based on the principle that all emission reductions are created equal, the concept works, in theory, quite simply. For every pollutant one adds to the atmosphere, he or she can subtract it by purchasing “carbon offsets,” credits for emission reductions achieved by energy efficient projects elsewhere in the world, such as wind farms, solar installations, or tree planting initiatives. Anybody can purchase these credits, apply them to their own emissions and thus reduce their own net impact on the climate. For less than $100/year (at $10/ton), for example, most North Americans can offset their personal GHG footprint.
While the concept of carbon neutrality dates back to at least a decade, it has only been in the last two or 3 years that interest in this market has exploded. Beginning with a few innovative companies and individuals looking for an opportunity to “do the right thing”; trading carbon emissions is quickly becoming an environmental commodity market. With environmental commodity markets being relatively new; the retail market for “voluntary carbon neutrality” is newer still. More and more organizations are advertising their companies, facilities, events or even products as “carbon neutral.” Yet despite the outburst of interest in the concept, there is still no standard agreement about what it means or how it can be verified. With dozens of providers of carbon offsets in the retail market – and more entering it all the time – it is quite difficult for potential purchasers to understand what they are buying and what they should look for. Because a carbon offset is an intangible commodity, it is very difficult for consumers – even environmentally-savvy ones – to differentiate between a high- quality and a low-quality “offset.”
To truly neutralize the emissions of our travel and of our lifestyles, there needs to be a clear conceptual link in how the offsets we purchase are reducing climate emissions from somewhere else. With very little regulation in this new market, there is a considerable amount of confusion around what types of offsets can be applied to make one become carbon neutral. In the absence of an accepted standard, almost anyone can offer to sell people almost anything and claim that it is carbon neutral.
As a response to the absence of effective national and international policies on climate change, the retail market for voluntary GHG emission offsets is certainly a sign of our times. With no federal greenhouse gas emissions reduction mandates in the US, for example, voluntary carbon emissions reductions and offset projects have played a key role in corporate and individual efforts to take action against global warming. The market offers individuals, businesses and other institutions (i.e. universities) the opportunity to take personal responsibility for their own GHG footprint. This in itself is a worthy endeavor.
In 2006, the same year that the New Oxford American Dictionary chose “carbon neutral” as its “Word of the Year,” Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP), a non-profit organization in the US, released the first independent review of retail carbon offset providers to the public.
Investing in our environment
Titled “A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers,” the report was designed to encourage more transparency and quality to the industry. At the time the report was released, more than 30 companies and organizations were in the market, primarily conducting their services to consumers through websites on the Internet.
As disclosed in the report, describing the retail offsets market is not easy. The number of entities in the market continues to grow, and the dozens of organizations already involved in the market provide widely disparate marketing and consumer messages. No one can say with certainty how many offsets have been sold in the retail offsets market for carbon neutrality purposes. Many retail offset marketers provide little information about where the money is being spent or what the criteria is to select the reductions they sell to consumers (i.e. how they chose these projects and why these projects are able to generate quality offsets). Moreover, some suppliers do not fully describe what they are selling. Offsets from tree planting, for example, are often sold as if they were exactly the same as any other offset, even thought the GHG reductions from planting trees may not be realized for decades into the future.
Retail offset providers face several challenges in supplying credible, cost-effective offsets to consumers. To understand these challenges, consider these two characteristics of the market:
a) Carbon neutrality is usually sold on a year-to-year basis. This means that there is no guarantee that people will continue to purchase offsets in the future, and few consumers are willing to purchase carbon neutrality for multiple years up front.
