The great carbon con: Can offsetting really help to save the planet?
Offsetting is popular because it makes people feel much better about taking long-haul flights or driving gas-guzzling vehicles. “They are being misled,” says Oakley. “Most carbon offsetting companies are making a killing.” Climate Care, the company David Cameron pays his green-guilt tax to, has recently been bought by the investment bank J P Morgan. In the credit-crunch climate, any new acquisitions are thought through very carefully, and only the most watertight pass muster. This move suggests that carbon offsetting is currently considered one of the most risk-free industries around.Very few not-for-profit offsetting companies exist. Myclimate is one, and only uses “Gold Standard” offsets, a strict set of criteria for measuring where the money is going, drawn up by a number of international campaigning organisations. Since last year’s conference in Bali to discuss how to take climate-change proposals past the Kyoto Protocol agreement, the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has been working on a certification system to keep carbon cowboys out of the market. Redd – reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation – is the UN’s proposed trading mechanism, which aims to pay countries not to cut down their forests.
http://www.zerofooprint.net is another example of a not-for-profit carbon offsetting company that has developed carbon trading as part of their business plan. Zerofootprint’s primary goal is to allow people to measure their carbon output by using our specially designed carbon calculators, (http://www.zerofootprint.net/profile/sign_in), which also provides information to monitor and reduce the extent of people’s carbon emissions. Offsetting is a helpful, final option for people who wish to further reduce their carbon impact on the planet, and a worthwhile tool to combat global warming.
Zerofootprint
16 Apr 08 at 10:13 am
we’ll check the site out time will tell
but once the ‘carbon cowboys’ of the “free-market” are involved in anything we say to the poor and exploited of the world, grab your wallets, your knives and guns cause they’re gunning for you again and you’re gonna have to fight for your survival
if they come up with it, there’s a scam around the corner. the market is about profits which only comes through exploitation and destruction…anything else said is a fairy tale
resist
16 Apr 08 at 11:05 am