By Designitgreener Editor
We have all seen the claims of corporations and organizations claiming to be “Carbon Neutral.” How they make these claims are often through the purchase of carbon offset credits. The premise behind carbon offset credits is a financial arrangement whereby companies or organizations producing carbon emissions in excess of a predetermined amount must purchase carbon offsets from others entities who are producing less than their allotted quota or are pursuing activities that reduce atmospheric carbon.
While carbon emission reduction is a noble goal, there is an ongoing controversy on what net effect carbon credit schemes will really have on global carbon emissions.
Proponents say it will punish big carbon emitters and put them at a financial disadvantage if they fail to clean up their acts – eventually leading to their demise and replacement by a cleaner competitor. It also provides financial incentives for those inventing and pursuing carbon reduction activity and technologies such as clean energy production.
Critics say that carbon trading programs merely provide polluters a means of obtaining a license to pollute by paying a fee. They claim it will have zero net effect on CO2 reduction rates, as any offsets will be matched with increased emissions. They claim it also provides an extra incentive for polluters to outsource manufacturing to non-participant countries such as China and India.
To us, carbon emissions is a global issue and any measures to address it need to take into account global markets. The Kyoto protocol made clear the shortcomings of global carbon reduction efforts that lack truly global scope despite good intentions. The criteria for determining who pays and who gets paid are critical and once defined need to apply globally as a condition of international trade if a workable system is to be reached.
There is no doubt that carbon offset credits will continue to be topical and controversial, but there is one thing all sides can agree on. If you want to offset carbon emissions, the surest way to do so is to reduce your own.
What do you think?
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