Carbon Offsetting

By Author: Dave Sabri
Total Articles: 29
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Carbon offsetting offers people a means to compensate for the carbon emissions they produce through energy consumption. Around 40% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions are produced through electricity consumption in home. This means that every individual has a carbon footprint to offset.

Businesses and individuals can pay a company to invest in renewable energy schemes - projects that will reduce carbon emissions by an amount equal to those created by activities such as air travel, driving or heating a building.

Of course, the most effective way to help fight climate change is cut down on the amount of energy each person produces, for example, by turning of the lights when you leave a room, never leaving electrical appliances on standby and ensuring that your house is insulated. However, offsetting is still a useful exercise which could help slow down global warming.

There are many schemes which advertise offsetting programs, but ones which invest in renewable energy or energy efficient projects, which can prove what they say they are doing are generally more recommended by environmental watch-dogs.

Many ...
... companies advertise tree-planting schemes or development of bio-energy or gas capture initiatives, but energy watchdogs suggest these are not the best organisations in which to invest since they do not aid the development of the infrastructure we need for a low carbon future.

There are currently no legal guidelines for offset companies, but there are a number of accreditation bodies. These include:

DEFRA's Code of Best Practice (launched in June 2008) which gives a Quality Mark to show that a company has met the Government United Nations standards for being a reliable offset scheme.

And, The Gold Standard, which is a type of certification introduced by environmental groups. It identifies offset projects that meet good sustainability standards, deliver benefits to local communities and are based on energy efficiency or renewable energy.

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