Forgive me father, for I have emitted carbon

As Kyoto and Montreal protocols for dealing with climate change and carbon release hash out the details of nations trading off their wasteful ways, a market for individual feel-good carbon offsets has cropped up. Based on an article in New Scientist, March 10-16, 2007, it looks like a really good way to waste your money.

Here's how it works -- you do something really environmentally bad, like taking a trip on airplane. When you get back, you log into a web site, use their algorithm to calculate how bad you were, and pay an amount of money which they claim they will use to fund "offset" projects, usually planting trees somewhere. As New Scientist says,

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"Some see carbon offsetting as the ultimate guilt-free solution to global warming, but New Scientist has found that this market in environmental absolution is remarkably unregulated and secretive, which leaves it open to deception and fraud. While we found no impropriety, the lack of transparency means it is often impossible to be sure that money invested in carbon offsetting makes the difference that is claimed for it.

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.

Though still much smaller than the Kyoto sector, which has so far committed to offset 740 million tonnes of CO2, voluntary offsets have grown from 3 million tonnes in 2004 to somewhere between 20 and 50 million tonnes in 2006. In all, more than 30 organisations across the developed world now sell voluntary offsets. Simply go online, calculate your emissions from flying, running your car or running your life, and cleanse your environmental sins at the click of a mouse."

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The main problem with these companies is that they don't make it clear that their "offset" efforts will accrue over many years -- you dumped carbon last week, the offsets won't kick in for decades. The projects mostly amount to tree-planting schemes. Where are the programs being implemented? Someplace that actually needs trees? And trees die, eventually, rot and release carbon of their own. So this century's offset programs may not be helpful in the next one.

This is really no different from consumer recycling -- a feel good bandaid, when the real answer is to minimize the throw-away nature of packaging and consumer goods themselves.

The article is here.
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