Carbon-Neutral is Hip, but is it Green?

The growing awareness of the planet’s environmental crisis has sparked a ‘green gold rush’, which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go ‘carbon neutral’ - offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their contribution to global warming. The attributes of the remarkable carbon atom make possible the existence of all organic compounds essential to life on earth. Carbon atoms continually move through living organisms, the oceans, the atmosphere, and the crust of the planet. This movement i

The biggest concern with carbon offsetting is that it does not encourage reducing emissions. Instead it encourages ‘business as usual’ which is taking carbon from out of the ground and putting it back into the carbon cycle. Carbon offsetting allows people to drive and fly all over the world ‘guilt free’ just as long as enough trees are planted. Even though living trees absorb the excess carbon, those emissions are still in the carbon cycle which is not desirable. It is a classic case of treating the symptom, not the cause.

It is both exciting to see environmental responsibility becoming so mainstream, and frightening if there is a continued emphasis on ‘mindless offsetting’. Like most political and scientific issues, the devil is in the details.

There’s a lot of good in the basic concept of carbon offsetting, even though many in the environmental movement criticise the practice as allowing people guilt-free passes for ongoing irresponsible behavior. The key, however, is that it should be only part of a person’s efforts to reduce their footprint on the planet. If you’re driving a gas guzzling car, indulging in excessive and unnecessary trips, or think recycling only has to do with your computer’s desktop, then purchasing a bunch of offsets shouldn’t be your only focus!

A quick internet search on ‘Carbon Neutral’ will yield a mind-blowing number of results and options, and it seems you can go ‘neutral’ in an endless number of ways, such as:
* Contributing to tree planting (a practice that is controversial – see following article for more)
* Providing funding for alternative energy development such as wind or solar
* Offsetting through purchasing energy efficient light-bulbs and shower heads
* One company even invites consumers to offset carbon emissions by investing in enhanced oil recovery, which pumps carbon dioxide into depleted oil wells to bring up the remaining oil.

You can carbon offset your home loan, banking, air travel, even your website – in fact, it would seem that you can now offset against virtually anything!

Basically, however, there are three main carbon offsetting categories. These include investments in energy efficiency installations, investments in renewable energy installations and investments in tree plantation projects.

1. Energy Efficiency Installations reduce total energy consumption and reduce the burning of fossil fuels in generating power. A well known example of this type of offset is through the installation of compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs and water saving shower heads.

2. Renewable Energy Systems produce energy by making use of inexhaustible natural forces, such as the sun, wind and the water, and replace energy generated by burning fossil fuels.
When the Clean Development Mechanism was proposed in the UN climate negotiations, many campaigners were convinced that it would provide a boon for the core renewable technologies long championed by environmentalists – wind, solar, tidal/wave, geothermal and micro-hydro. However, only 2% of all CDM-sanctioned carbon ‘capital’ goes towards these essential technologies. The vast majority of credits generated are the result of a few industrial gas capture projects at major chemical and manufacturing plants that capture HFC - a powerful greenhouse gas. Critics argue that these sources should not be paid to clean up a mess of their own making. That these companies are significant polluters in other respects is not factored in to the decision-making process.

Tree Plantation Projects sequester CO2 through photosynthesis. When you buy a carbon offset from these projects you are funding the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.
However, there are concerns that the principles underlying carbon offsetting are deeply flawed. and that many of the projects that are claimed as being beneficial to the climate cause harm to communities and ecosystems in other ways, or that consumers have no real way of determining that the carbon neutral schemes are delivering on their promise. Unfortunately, at this stage the industry is not regulated and until this happens these concerns will remain very real. (read more about Tree Planting in following article).

If offset companies really can engage with their customers, help them to reduce emissions at the source as much as possible, and then offset the rest while they seek even larger reductions, then they are probably providing a valuable service. However, there is no question that they do also help alleviate people’s guilt about polluting, and can therefore act to prolong damaging behaviors. The idea of offsetting a private jet flight, or an inefficient car, seems somewhat absurd, but then one person’s ‘necessity’ is someone else’s luxury.

Few will argue that offsetting is a step in the right direction, and as the industry gains momentum, there are a number of things that need to be done, including the establishment of a watchdog to police carbon offsetting programs. Plus consumers should demand more transparency and accountability, similar to when you sponsor a child and get regular updates. Would you like to get a picture once a year of the trees you bought?

View it as just one of many small personal steps you can take to help the planet, or use it as an excuse to continue ‘guilt free’ with unsustainable practices – in the end it will the actions of individuals taking personal responsibility that will eventually determine the success of failure of carbon offsetting. History may well view it as one mankind’s greatest achievements in the fight for the environment, or a travesty of self-indulgence and opportunist marketing.