Carbon Offsets

This article was first published in the Skaha Matters Newsletter

There are two interesting things about carbon emission. First (unlike other bad things like smog, mine tailings, or fecal contamination of wastewater) it doesn’t matter where in the world the carbon is emitted, it contributes to climate change on a global scale. Second, there is more than one way to skin a cat. You can significantly reduce world-wide carbon by science-based forest management in Norway or more investment in energy efficiency in Mexico City.

This leads to a situation where the best thing to do for carbon emissions may be to invest beyond your own backyard; purchasing something called a “carbon offset”. If this idea sounds familiar, it should remind you of the Montreal Protocol ‘cap and trade’ which successfully reduced the ozone hole. Modern carbon offsets allow you to contribute in small amounts ($50) to a Go Fund Me -like campaign which carries out a million dollar project that reduces carbon.

Carbon offsets are subject to similar abuses to those that charities face so the industry has developed rules. In addition to careful audits, Gold Standard projects follow eight rules.

1. Don’t do a stupid project. 
2. The project must actually reduces one or more of the three main greenhouse gases. 
3. If a first world person gets carbon credit for a project in a 3rd world country it doesn’t count as aid. 
4. Do one thing well; don’t muddy the waters by also trying to save souls, imagine whirled peas, or keep kosher. 
5. The project cannot be business as usual (hey, pay us for what we are already doing!). 
6. Doesn’t muck up the country it is hosted in, even if they can’t afford lawyers.

Carbon offsets can be a powerful lever. A single Canadian dollar goes further in third world countries for vaccines or food; it also goes further in reducing carbon. This is magnified tenfold by our wealth-carbon debt -- North America is extremely wealthy due to past industrialization which put a whopping amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Developing countries are still struggling towards industrialization and have been eagerly anticipating generating tons of carbon to raise standards of living. Carbon-offset projects have a chance of funding projects that allow India to leapfrog situations like Charles Dickens’ coal burning London, bringing countries into the 22nd century without laying waste to the planet.

What is the difference between carbon offsets and Renewable Energy Credits? Carbon offsets could involve a wide range of activities: designing cows than don’t fart methane, solar energy, planting trees, subsidizing solar lantern/phone chargers in 3rd world countries. RECs are, practically speaking, limited to wind or solar electric. Carbon offsets are measured in pounds (or rather tons) and Renewable Energy Credits are measured in killowatt hours (same as your Hydro bill) although businesses often advertise RECs as a percentage of their total energy use: “In 2016, Staples purchased 3% of its U.S. electricity needs in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs)”.

Your strongest weapon to fight global warming is a three legged stool: reduce your energy use, replace fossil fuels with renewables, and purchase carbon offsets to cover activities that we don’t know how to fix (yet).



Articles and cartoons on Teaspoon Energy by Kristy Dyer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You may reprint this as-is for free.