Offset Carbon Emissions with Carbon Offsets - But What Are Carbon Offsets?

There is much talk in the media on the subject of carbon offsets bought by companies and individuals to reduce their carbon emissions, but what are carbon offsets?

Carbon Offsets or a Carbon Offset is a financial instrument aimed to offset carbon emissions through the purchasing of carbon credit’s from a company or organisation who invest in projects that help to reduce or limit the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere in the short and long term. Carbon offsets are usually measured on tons of CO2.

Carbon offsets are bought by all kinds of people and organisations. On the larger scale carbon offsets are bought by large companies and governments to meet ‘caps’ on the amount of carbon emissions they are allowed to release. This is a huge market and in 2006 $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were bought. Carbon offsets are also bought on a smaller scale voluntarily by smaller companies and individuals who aim to be more eco friendly and reduce carbon emissions and their Carbon Footprint. Individuals often by carbon credit’s to offset carbon emissions from their cars and air travel. More environmentally conscious smaller companies are also choosing to offset their carbon emissions; this often improves a company’s green image, and their products and services become more desirable to the ever eco conscious consumer, increasing sales.

Carbon offsets are sometimes bought because it can be difficult to offset certain parts of an individual’s lifestyle or a contributor’s to a company’s carbon footprint. There is no substitute for a person or company implementing their own carbon reduction techniques like microgeneration technologies, but carbon offsets are very useful for reducing carbon emissions which often cannot be avoided, like carbon emissions from travel.

Once a carbon offset is bought, the money goes to a carbon offsetting company who then invest in carbon reducing measures like building renewable energy installations including wind turbines, solar panels and biomass energy projects. Renewable energy projects are the most common form of carbon offsetting, but there are many others that are used like energy efficiency projects, destruction of landfill methane (a gas much more harmful to the atmosphere that CO2), planting trees, or reforestation, and the protection of areas of rain forest.

Carbon offsets can be bought through international brokers on a larger scale, but also online for smaller businesses and individuals looking to offset their carbon emissions. www.gototallygreen.com will soon be launching a carbon offsetting service at www.green-carbonoffsets.com.

There has been some criticism of carbon offsets. Many problems have arisen with companies who are supposed to offset carbon emissions, but who’s actions do little or nothing to reduce or offset carbon emissions. An example of this has been proposed CO2 cutting schemes which have never been started or implemented, and problems with permits granted by the EU which resulted in some carbon credits being worthless and useless at offsetting carbon. The main problem is that in an often unregulated market, customers can often be misled by companies claiming exaggerated carbon cuts, charging inflated prices and selling already sold carbon offsets. Customers should therefore be vigilant and only use trusted companies. The UK government is soon to bring in set standards that hope to regulate the carbon emissions market and provide more protection to consumers looking to offset their carbon emissions and reduce their carbon footprint.

Carbon offsets are by no means a long term solution to climate change. The world will only truly be able to conquer climate change by individuals and companies reducing their carbon footprints through numerous energy saving techniques, producing their own energy and electric, and taking simple measures like Buying Local To Reduce Carbon Footprint and travelling less where possible. Although carbon offsets, used properly and from a trusted source can help to reduce or offset some of the unavoidable emissions from travel etc that we produce, and many of the measures that are implemented as a result of carbon credit purchases are great projects which will benefit the environment and future generations in the long term.

To view in more detail about the benefits of carbon offsets, read our Advantages of Carbon Credits post.

Tags: carbon footprint, carbon offsets, reduce carbon emissions