Carbon Credits and offsetting

Its all the rage now and late last year I was looking into some 'green' presents for family members (rather than just more necklaces, CDs and other consumptive junk). After stumbling around on the web for a good few hours I went to a reliable source of information, Tamara, a good friend of mine who has spent considerable time looking into carbon offsets. She, Melanie and Magda did a research thesis on the topic so are well informed.

The long and the short of the conversation was a recommendation to support the UK-based organisation, ClimateCare. They do good work and appear to be a bit more rigorous than other offset organisations in their assessment of projects they support. Simply put, the theory behind it is that they invest in projects in developing countries that avoid the need for unsustainable projects and CO2 emissions. They also look for synergies and consider more than just CO2 (e.g resilience in communities, capacity building, other social or environmental benefits).

While I am not convinced offsetting is THE solution to climate change, it does have some merit in terms of being 1) an awareness-raiser 2) something concrete that organisations can 'get into' 3) a flexible platform since it doesn't lock in investments if an organisation purchases offsets. 4) buys time to do other things about the problem while supporting efforts that stop the global emissions situation getting worse.

Of course, the EU carbon trading market is just a sign of more things to come (and another example of the closing funnel walls, in TNS talk). More on emissions cap and trading later...
\R