Courtesy of G: The Green Lifestyle Magazine
In August 2002, British pop group Coldplay released their second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. To offset some of the environmental damage caused by the album's production, the group announced they would pay to plant 10,000 mango trees in southern India through the British company Future Forests (since renamed The CarbonNeutral Company).
But in April 2006, British newspaper The Telegraph reported that at least 40 percent of the saplings had died in the subsequent years through lack of access to water — negating the carbon sequestration they were to provide.
The CarbonNeutral Company said it would make good the losses by planting more trees in a different project in Chiapas, Mexico, but the story brings up a major issue with offsets: how do you make sure your offsets are working? Atmospheric carbon can't be seen and the tonne you're paying to remove doesn't have your name on it and could be anywhere in the world. So how do you know whether it's really been offset?
Your safest bet is to buy a certified offset. The offset market is growing fast, and several groups have developed standards to certify carbon credits to ensure you get what you pay for.
New South Wales is the only Australian state that has certified forestry offsets at present — guaranteed stable sequestration for 100 years — and the NSW Government also creates certificates for carbon offsets based on emissions reductions. Nationwide, the same Green Power program that supplies accredited renewable energy to your home can also be used for offsets. Additionally, the Australian Greenhouse Office's Greenhouse Friendly Program certifies both forestry programs and clean energy providers. Offsets sold by Climate Friendly are based on renewable energy it purchases from Green Power-accredited wind farms in Victoria and WA.
But what about international projects? Growing our own renewable energy industry is important, but buying offsets from developing countries pumps money into their own fledgling clean energy projects. International projects can't be accredited by Green Power — and other countries have varying standards, if any.
That's why Victoria-based not-for-profit organisation Climate Positive and others use guidelines such as the international Voluntary Carbon Standard, set to launch later this year. "It's designed to be a global benchmark," says Brendan Condon, director of Climate Positive. The product of collaboration between The Climate Group, the International Emissions Trading Association and the World Economic Forum, the standard "creates offset products that represent real, permanent, transparent, independently verified carbon offsets that are additional to business as usual," he says.
By Benjamin Lester, a freelance science journalist based in California. Additional reporting by Drew Turney.
>> Back: part three — soak up, or stop, carbons?
Courtesy of G Magazine
