Offsetting Carbon Emissions the Concept of Offsetting Your Carbon Emissions Is Controversial but Beginning to Take Hold
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ON TEST Offsetting carbon emissions The concept of offsetting your carbon emissions is controversial but beginning to take hold. James Fair explains how it works and assesses the main players in the market. WHAT DOES ‘OFFSETTING current rates. The impact this will bought really are being achieved, but carbon calculators assume CARBON EMISSIONS’ MEAN? have on both people and wildlife but only one – atmosfair – adheres optimum fuel effi ciency for all Every day, we release carbon scarcely bears thinking about. 100 per cent to principles laid fl ights. They also fail to take into dioxide, the gas that is the biggest down by the ‘Gold Standard’ – a account emissions of other gases, cause of climate change, into the SO YOU HAND OVER SOME MONEY sort of Soil Association for carbon such as nitrous oxide. atmosphere as a result of burning AND THE PROBLEM’S SOLVED? offset schemes. fossil fuels and deforestation. To Of course not. Everyone has to do WHAT ABOUT CALCULATING THE offset these emissions, we can pay more to reduce their emissions. HOW DO I CALCULATE EMISSIONS OFFSET? IS THAT SIMPLE? an organisation to absorb or But say you’re an avid wildlife FOR A FLIGHT, SAY, TO KENYA? Theoretically, yes. Take a scheme reduce emissions elsewhere – enthusiast and you dream of taking Any of the organisations overleaf that invests in green technology, either by planting trees or investing a trip to see the Masai Mara can do it with their ‘carbon such as fuel-effi cient cooking in energy-effi ciency or renewable- migration. By seeing wildlife in its calculators’, but there is a stoves. “All you have to do is work energy schemes. native country, you are giving it a problem – estimates for a return out how much energy the scheme value and helping to conserve it. fl ight from London to Nairobi vary creates and therefore how much BUT IS CLIMATE CHANGE But you are also contributing to from 1.26 to 4.68 tonnes of carbon carbon has been prevented from REALLY SUCH A BIG DEAL? carbon emissions, and this is dioxide. Dietrich Brockhagen of escaping into the atmosphere,” The consensus of climate where offsetting comes in. atmosfair, the organisation that says Dominick Spracklen, an scientists is that artifi cial levels of comes up with the higher number, expert in carbon offset schemes carbon dioxide and other HOW DO I KNOW MY PAYMENT says other carbon calculators are from Harvard University. greenhouse gases are raising the WILL OFFSET MY EMISSIONS? too simplistic and therefore temperature of the Earth’s Choosing the right offset massively underestimate the true WHAT ABOUT TREE PLANTING? atmosphere. One accepted organisation (see overleaf) is fi gure. Most aeroplanes, for Again, theoretically yes. According scenario is that temperatures will crucial. Most are monitored by instance, achieve greatest fuel to Spracklen, research has shown rise by between 2 and 3˚C by 2050 independent bodies that check the effi ciency when fl ying a distance that one hectare of forest that is Illustration by Flatliner/Debut Art Illustration if emissions continue to increase at emissions reductions you have of between 2,000 and 4,000km, planted will remove about 100 76 BBC Wildlife January 2007 ON TEST ON TEST HUMMINGBIRDS OR TIGERS? WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES The money you pay to offset your carbon emissions can go to a huge range of different projects – here we profi le three particular schemes, two of which greatly benefi t wildlife. Hummingbird: World Land Trust; solar lighting: CarbonNeutral; tiger: ShinYoshino/FLPA tiger: ShinYoshino/FLPA solar lighting: CarbonNeutral; Land Trust; World Hummingbird: ECUADOR TREE PLANTING INDIA AND SRI LANKA SOLAR LIGHTING INDIA BIOGAS DIGESTERS The World Land Trust is carrying out The CarbonNeutral Company is using carbon The Co-op Bank (via Climate Care) is funding a reforestation for the purpose of creating carbon offset payments to support solar-powered project outside Ranthambore National Park that offsets in two of its reserves in Ecuador – lighting installations in rural homes in southern is tackling deforestation within the park and Buenaventura in the south and Yanacocha in the India and Sri Lanka. Many people in the project helping to preserve tiger habitat. Funds from north. Both harbour bird species that are areas have no access to grid electricity and offsetting the Co-op’s mortgages – one tonne of classed as critically endangered by the IUCN – therefore use kerosene lamps. These produce carbon dioxide per house per year – buy biogas the el oro parakeet and the black-breasted carbon emissions, are responsible for causing digesters, which produce methane from cattle puffl eg, a type of hummingbird (above). Both respiratory infections and other illnesses in dung to fuel cooking stoves. Carbon emissions areas consist of degraded montane and home owners and are a fi re risk. It’s estimated are offset because it results in fewer trees being subtropical forests that have been reduced to that the project will reduce carbon emissions by unsustainably harvested for fuel wood. Methane 10 per cent of their original cover in Ecuador. about 12,500 tonnes between 2004 and 2008. is also regarded as a renewable energy source. tonnes of carbon (or 367 tonnes of SO I SHOULDN’T PLANT TREES go for tree planting in a tropical JARGON BUSTER carbon dioxide) from the TO OFFSET MY EMISSIONS? country (see the World Land Trust atmosphere over about 50 years, Well, it’s not that simple. About 40 and Envirotrade). Third, double the CARBON EMISSIONS though these fi gures will vary per cent of the increase in carbon estimates for carbon emissions This is really a shortening of according to the tree species, dioxide levels since 1850 can be from aviation if you want to be ‘carbon dioxide emissions’, the climate and other factors. attributed to deforestation – it is, certain (unless you use atmosfair). main greenhouse gas. Some in other words, a major driver of organisations talk about tonnes IS THIS SCIENCE ACCEPTED? climate change. Spracklen argues WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US? of carbon, some about tonnes of Not completely. The Gold that buying carbon offsets could Don’t rely on carbon offsetting to carbon dioxide – the important Standard does not endorse tree give considerable impetus to the salve a guilty conscience. You thing is that 3.67 tonnes of carbon planting, according to conservation of tropical should aim to reduce energy dioxide = 1 tonne of carbon. spokesperson Michael Schlup, rainforests. Organisations such as consumption in all areas of your CARBON CALCULATOR because “the science behind the the World Land Trust (see above) life. “It should not be a licence to All the offset organisations have calculation is not that simple.” offset your emissions to benefi t pollute for guilt-free motoring or devices of differing complexity There are other problems, too. wildlife and biodiversity. fl ying,” says Greenpeace UK’s on their websites that calculate How do you know that someone climate campaigner Charlie how much carbon you emit won’t cut the trees down again or HOW DO I CHOOSE A GOOD Kronick. Guardian writer George either from a fl ight, your home that they would not have been OFFSET SCHEME? Monbiot is a trenchant critic of or your car. planted anyway? Some carbon Look at how the organisation is carbon offset schemes, describing offsets have been achieved by monitored and by whom. The Gold them as the equivalent of buying CARBON TRADING replanting previously deforested Standard would appear best at “complacency, political apathy This refers to people or land with vast monocultures. this stage because it is rigorous and self-satisfaction.” Others companies buying and selling and independent of the schemes it argue that the very act of the right to emit carbon dioxide. assesses. Second, all these calculating your emissions is the This ties in with offsetting your projects have broader benefi ts. If fi rst step to reducing them, and carbon emissions, because in a you want social gains, go for that offset schemes could help to sense you are buying the right to energy-effi ciency schemes in stimulate emissions reductions. emit the amount you have offset. developing countries (see The One thing’s for sure – both the In the business, these are known Carbon Neutral Company, above). issue of climate change and as ‘voluntary retail offsets’. If biodiversity is more important, carbon offsetting are here to stay. January 2007 BBC Wildlife 77 ON TEST CARBON EMISSIONS: THE FACTS There are some things we can say with certainty about carbon emissions: WORLD LAND TRUST CLIMATE CARE 300% ☎ 0845 054 4422; www.worldlandtrust.org ☎ 01865 207 000; www.climatecare.org AVIATION Status Registered charity. Status Not-for-profi t company trust, limited Friends of the Earth has calculated that if Offsetting activities Tree planting. by guarantee, owned by a private company. aviation use grows as forecast, then carbon What does it invest in and where? Offsetting activities 80 per cent goes into emissions from air travel will increase by Rainforest regeneration in developing renewable-energy and energy-saving projects 300 per cent between 1990 and 2030. By countries such as Ecuador. and 20 per cent into rainforest restoration. 2050, aviation could represent 15 per cent of Scale of offsetting activities Offset 8,000 What does it invest in and where? A wide global carbon dioxide emissions. It’s range of projects, from energy-effi cient stoves tonnes of CO2 in 2005 and expects to offset estimated that a tax of €0.125 (about 8p) per between 500,000 and 700,000 tonnes in 2006. in Bangladesh and Madagascar to biogas litre – one fi fth of the tax on petrol for road Is there any independent certifi cation? Yes digesters in India.