A code of Best Practice is what our industry needs.
There’s an article by Fred Pearce in this week’s dead-tree edition of New Scientist called Look, no carbon footprint! (subscription required) which raises many valid concerns about the whole carbon offset industry.
There are two kinds of offset. Official offsets - sanctioned under the Kyoto protocol - allow governments and companies to earn carbon credits that can be traded on markets such as the Chicago Climate Exchange. Most such projects are carried out in developing countries under the protocol’s “clean development mechanism”. They have their detractors, but they are at least controlled by tight rules and a complex bureaucracy aimed at preventing fraud.
Then there is the burgeoning unofficial sector - an army of charitable and profit-making bodies that charge a fee to organise offsets on your behalf. This sector cannot confer Kyoto credits and is not bound by the protocol’s rules, yet it is the route that many companies have chosen so they can make claims about their green credentials. It has also opened the door to private individuals who want to offset their emissions.
Carbon Planet works in this voluntary space, helping individuals and businesses reduce their emissions and offset what they can not reduce, primarily using forestry credits sourced from NSW Forests, a division of the New South Wales state government.
Buying offsets may assuage your guilt, but does it actually work? The answer is a resounding maybe. According to a study by offsets expert Mark Trexler for environment group Clean Air-Cool Planet, based in New Hampshire: “There are no widely accepted standards as to what qualifies as an offset. Almost anyone can offer to sell you almost anything and claim that this purchase will make you carbon neutral.”
I am in London right now at the invitation of DEFRA, the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, working on a solution to this issue. DEFRA has proposed a code of ‘Best Practice’ for voluntary offsetters and Carbon Planet is very enthusiastic in its support of such a code. The proposed code addresses Mr Pearce’s concerns head-on.
One of the key concerns Pearce raises is that of double-dipping. Most voluntary offset providers simply take your money and all you get is a promise, loose at best and dishonest at worst. Carbon Planet is a genuine retailer of carbon credits. When you buy from us we create an account for you in the NSW Greenhouse gas registry and transfer the carbon credits into your account. In this way you have proof that the credits you paid for are in fact yours.
The NGAC scheme, one of the best carbon credit schemes in the world, ensures that, should the trees that are capturing and storing your carbon burn or otherwise die, the NGACs must be replaced straight away.
Another point raised by Pearce is that of timeliness. For sure it takes a tree many many years to grow to full maturity, and this is one of the biggest issues with tree-planting schemes. Foresty NGACs are generated based on a statistical average of carbon absorption across massive reforestation projects on land that was cleared prior to 1990, using only trees native to their regions. The issue of timeliness is dealt with as the trees absorb CO2 in parallel. As more land is reforested, the CO2 is absorbed more quickly.
A further significant point raised, not only by Pearce but by many groups, is that offsetting doesn’t actually change people’s behaviour. While there are arcane economic arguments that counter that notion, I believe the point has merit. This is why Carbon Planet places such emphasis on its mantra of Measure, Reduce, then Offset and employs a team of highly skilled engineers, in Australia and in the UK, to perform comprehensive carbon emissions audits, complete with tailored emissions reduction strategies.
Carbon Planet hopes that, by working with bodies such as DEFRA, we can help raise the bar of professionalism to new heights and force less reputable offset groups to either raise their game, or find a new one. The planet doesn’t have time for shonky schemes. — DS
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