Paying back the carbon debt

Every time an individual or business uses energy, whether it is heat, light, electricity or power, he/she/it produces a carbon trail. Carbon dioxide emissions are the greatest cause of global warming. Carbon offsetting offers people a way to compensate for their contribution to this process.

The way carbon offsetting works is by paying a company to invest in renewable energy or energy efficiency schemes, which will reduce carbon emissions by the same amount as the carbon levels which an individual or business has produced.

In the fight against global warming, there is no better weapon than cutting emissions in the first place. However, offsetting is an intermediary measure which is a useful tool and can certainly be used to appease the damage done by unavoidable use of energy.

There are many schemes which advertise offsetting programs, but ones which invest in renewable energy or energy efficient projects, which can prove what they say they are doing are generally more recommended by environmental watch-dogs.

Many schemes advertise tree planting (or reforestation), bio-energy schemes and carbon capture, but these projects are not as effective since they do not invest in the types of infrastructure needed for a low carbon future.

There are currently no legal guidelines for offset companies, but there are a number of accreditation bodies. These include:

DEFRA's Code of Best Practice (launched in June 2008) which gives a Quality Mark to show that a company has met the Government United Nations standards for being a reliable offset scheme.

And, The Gold Standard, which identifies offset projects that meet good sustainability standards, deliver benefits to local communities and are based on energy efficiency or renewable energy and has been created by environmental groups.

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