Are Carbon Offsets a con?
77
business points
Hi Mihajlo,
I work for a counsultancy which performs carbon accounting and energy efficiency consulting. Carbon Offsetting should be considered as one element in an overall environmental/greenhouse gas reduction strategy.
The offsetting should sit as part of a hierarchy of actions and be restricted to emissions which you cannot eliminate through other means.
The hierarchy is as follows:
- Avoid any emissions which you do not need to be generating. ie Dont have appliances turned on when you dont need to be using them.
- Reduce your emissions through energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions. Look at costs and payback periods for actions and you will save money while reducing your emissions.
- Replace your energy sources where possible with clean energy sources, either through onsite generation or purchase of GreenPower.
- Offset any unavoidable emissions. Make sure you understand what sort of offset you are purchasing. By taking this step last, your offset purchase will be lower than it would have otherwise been.
Ensure that your offsets are credible an likely to result in real avoided emissions in the short term. Offsets do not prevent your emissions from being created and in some cases they may not reduce emissions significantly for several years. It is important to understand and reduce your emissions first then offset only those which cannot be avoided.
It is important to cover all of your major sources of emissions. Remember that your emissions profile will be very different to that of your neighbours and calculations should focus on your operations.
Seamus
Other Replies
26
business points
It's important to distinguish between uncertified "carbon offsets" and formally certified carbon credits that can be used to offset one's emissions.
First up the act of offsetting your emissions must be likened to outsourcing of your emissions reduction. No matter what your industry there will be efficiencies and emission reductions you can achieve internally within your business. But there will also be emissions that you either can't reduce to zero, or it is simply too expensive to reduce in the short term.
This is where it makes sense to outsource your emissions reduction by paying someone else to reduce emissions on your behalf.
When choosing carbon credits to be used as an offset make sure of the following:
- Are they compatible with the forthcoming National Carbon Offset Standard. The NCOS replaces the former Greenhouse Friendly programme with a more modern and simpler system.
- Does the credit supplier either transfer ownership of the credits they are selling you, or retire those credits on your behalf into an independent, accredited carbon registry? The ACCC has been looking into instances of "double dipping" recently.
Credits that both meet the NCOS standards and which are transferred via a proper registry can be trusted to be reducing a tonne of CO2 equivalent.
Of course to know how many credits to buy requires a GHG assessment. If you are a medium to large business it is worth consulting your accountant for this service, or coming to a firm like mine. If you are a small business, we provide a dedicated piece of carbona ccounting software called G3MS Lite that you can use to accurately and quickly self-assess your footprint. See http://www.carbonplanet.com/g3ms_lite for more details.
CheersDave
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