I would qualify several of the statements made above, because I think the truth is much more nuanced.
Let's imagine for a second (I'll come back to this in a few paragraphs) that there are offsets where your financial contribution in purchasing them actually did reduce carbon emissions, those emissions reductions wouldn't have happened if you didn't buy offsets, and almost all of the money went towards emissions reductions rather that to paying an emissions broker. That is, let's imagine the product itself was legit.
Now let's look at my Dad. He is mindful of his carbon footprint, but he drives to work every day, powers his house with electricity, and takes 5 cross-country flights a year for work. He doesn't personally have many options for reducing those impacts. Electric cars are not available in any major way, there is no airline that powers their planes via biodiesel or some other renewable power, our local utility doesn't offer a green power option, and our roof is shaded by trees so solar makes no sense. It's unfortunate that cleaner alternatives aren't available for him, and I of course strongly support the development of those. But no matter how he slices it, he's going to emit carbon dioxide, and as an American, he's going to emit more than his fair share globally.
If he were willing to pay for a carbon reduction elsewhere in the economy, and it worked, why shouldn't we applaud him for that? Isn't that better than the neighbor who does the same and doesn't pay for those reductions? Sure he should reduce what he can through energy efficiency (no disagreement there), but he has to fly, has to get to work, and has to power our home, and the only options available to him emit carbon dioxide. As long as he's an early adopter of new green technologies that become available to him as Joe Consumer and buys energy efficient appliances, windows, etc., I don't think he should be demonized for paying money to minimize the environmental impacts he cannot possibly avoid.
Now to the question of credible offsets. I completely agree with you that many offsets on the market are not additional, are based on shady accounting, and not regulated. I think that most of the certifications that exist fail to ensure that only additional projects are built. Purchasing these offsets basically wastes my Dad's money, accomplishes little of value, and channels money to agricultural and landfill methane projects (which combine for 3% of total carbon emissions) rather than towards energy efficiency, renewable electricity generation, and electric cars.
That said, there is an approach to buy regulated "offsets" that does force advances in renewable energy and energy efficiency. My company, Village Green Energy, enables people to buy carbon allowances from a new fully mandatory and regulated carbon cap-and-trade system in the Northeast United States called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
RGGI sets a cap on the total carbon emissions that power plants in 10 states in New England can emit. It's set to 188 million tons, and it decreases over time, forcing utilities to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency. To be sure utilities are complying, the regulators create 188 million permits, and require each utility to have a permit for every ton of carbon dioxide emissions they emit. So the total emissions are set by the number of permits in the market.
Village Green enables people to buy these rights to emit carbon dioxide away from the utilities, thereby tightening the cap. The permits all have a unique serial number and are tracked by the state governments, so there's no shady accounting. And the money goes to reducing emissions in power plants. In fact, the states auction off these permits and use these proceeds to fund even more efficiency and renewable energy programs.
My view is that if my Dad is doing what he can to reduce carbon emissions, and then purchases RGGI allowances, he's doing a great job minimizing his impact on the environment. I'd rather focus my attention on the Hummer driver who doesn't buy offsets than on someone who's willing to pay extra to try to reduce his impact.
Mike Jackson
mike@villagegreenenergy.com
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