What are carbon offsets?

A cost effective way to keep greenhouse gases out of our atmosphere

Carbon offsets, if they are of high quality, are the most efficient and cost-effective way to keep carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses (GHG) out of the atmosphere. However, in a market with mostly voluntary regulations, it is very important to recognize that not all offsets are equal. Before buying carbon offsets, you should first directly reduce your carbon emissions as much as possible. Where this becomes too difficult, too expensive or just unrealistic, valid carbon offsets can effectively keep an equivalent amount of GHGs out of the atmosphere. The quickest and most efficient way to stop climate change, is to reduce emissions as quickly as possible where they are most efficiently reduced. Carbon offsets give you a way to pay for an amount of emissions to be reduced or eliminated more efficiently than you could reduce your own emissions.

Based on successful sulphur trading that reduced emissions by 50%

Tropical Cloudforest in the Yungas region of Argentina
Tropical Cloudforest in South America

Carbon offsetting follows the extremely successful example of sulphur dioxide trading to reduce the acid rain that plagued northeastern states in the USA. A successful sulphur trading system reduced emissions by 50% in just ten years, between 1990 to 2000! Carbon trading is more complicated, because carbon dioxide is produced by so many activities, while sulphur dioxide is more easily accounted for, being produced mainly by large power plants. The principle is the same, however, and many opportunities exist around the world to efficiently reduce GHG emissions. Because of this, the first question to ask should be about the quality and nature of the offset; how efficient and how valid are the offsets that you are considering?

Calculated using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol

"The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is the most widely used international accounting tool used to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions. The GHG Protocol, a decade-long partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, is working with businesses, governments, and environmental groups around the world to build a new generation of credible and effective programs for tackling climate change." note 3

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