Carbon offsetting ‘can be harmful’
There’s a story in the UK’s Independent warning that Carbon offsetting ‘can be harmful’.
People who join the new fashion for buying carbon offsets will be urged by the Government today to check what they are buying before they hand over the money. Some schemes may be doing environmental damage in the developing world without curbing climate change.
Environmentalists also question the value of some of the schemes being sold by private companies. Large-scale tree planting can damage the environment and livelihoods in the Third World, especially where there is no variety in the species of tree being planted.
Carbon Planet’s carbon credits are generated by large scale tree planting activities in Australia. There are very strict rules on how these forests are to be managed and how the carbon captured and stored is accounted for. The truth is that trees are the only real tool we have for removing atmospheric carbon on a massive scale, and Australia has both the space, and a sophisticated regulatory regime under which such tree planting programmes can be regulated. Specifically the NGAC scheme stipulates that the trees must be hardwoods, native to the regions where they are being planted, and on land that was cleared previous to 1990.
When you buy carbon credits from us we actually transfer legal title of the carbon to you via the New South Wales government’s independent greenhouse gas registry. Thus you can be assured that the carbon is not being double dipped, the trees are actually good for the environment, and that your carbon credit really is yours, and really certifies the removal of a tonne of CO2 from the atmosphere and the storage of the carbon for 100 years. No other schemes can claim such comprehensive measures.
We have been invited by DEFRA, the UK’s department for the environment, to participate in a consultation process on a code of best practice for voluntary offsetters. We believe it is critical that tough regulation be imposed to counteract the damage that unscrupulous ‘cowboy’ operators have been doing to the carbon offset industry. The damage these cowboys do is as bad as the climate change deniers and polluters themselves. The climate clock is ticking. — DS
Technorati Tags: Australia, Carbon Planet, climate change, emissions reduction, emissions trading, forests, global warming, NGAC, UK
