By Therese Tepe and Derik Broekhoff

Consumers worldwide can now purchase carbon offsets from more than 30 companies in order to compensate for the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by their day-to-day activities. Retailers who offer this service invest the consumer's money into various projects that otherwise would not exist, thus reducing atmospheric GHG levels. In other words, consumers pay to decrease emissions somewhere else in order to compensate for the emissions they can not reduce from their own lives.

Per Capita Carbon Emissions, 1999

Source: EarthTrends 2001

The Retail Carbon Offset Market

Retail offset providers fund a wide variety of projects that reduce GHG emissions. Typical projects involve investments in renewable energy (e.g., wind or solar power), reforestation (which removes carbon from the atmosphere), and landfill or agricultural methane reductions. Accounting for and verifying offset reductions can be complicated, however, and because this is a new market without firmly established standards, there may be differences in what consumers can buy from different providers. Some basic questions to ask include:

Offsetting Your Emissions

Carbon offset providers usually have online calculators that allow potential customers to calculate their annual carbon emissions and the cost of offsetting that amount. Retailers suggest that customers become "carbon neutral" by offsetting their entire carbon emissions, from their homes, cars, and flights for business and other events. Major companies and organizations like the World Resources Institute, Ford, Stanford University and Patagonia are purchasers of carbon offsets with some striving towards "carbon neutral" status. However, carbon neutrality can involve very different levels of effort depending on the nature of the individual, company, or organization being "neutralized." Furthermore, the calculators provided by different offset retailers frequently give different estimates for your total emissions. Some of these discrepancies arise from differences in methods for calculating the effects of air travel emissions, which are still subject to some scientific uncertainty. Potential customers should look around at different calculators and view "carbon neutrality" as a positive (but somewhat subjective) goal, rather than as a real certified standard.

Offsets Alone Are Not Enough

The retail carbon offset market is growing rapidly as explained in A Consumers Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers. Along with the Tufts Climate Initiative report, this publication is one of the first methodological attempts to provide the public with accurate information concerning retail carbon offsets and the companies that provide them. The authors estimate that for less than $100 a year, most Americans can offset their personal GHG footprint. However, it stresses that consumers should first reduce their carbon emissions by driving less, using smaller vehicles, buying energy efficient appliances and using less electricity. They suggest that if a consumer purchases carbon offset services, they should do so in combination with reducing overall energy use. The surest way to reduce your impact on the climate is to reduce emissions yourself.

RELATED LINKS:

Carbon Finance for the UNDP Millennium Development Goals

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The Earth Institute at Columbia University

EarthTrends

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