Original article by Tom Morton. How does carbon offsetting work, and can it provide a real contribution to mitigating climate change? Read about an offset company and their projects, and their response to common criticisms of the process.

Introduction

Climate Care is a service that allows you to reduce your impact on climate change and the environment - whether you are a company, an individual or a local authority. The organisation recognises that people can only go so far in cutting out their carbon dioxide emissions, so they offset the remainder on their clients' behalf. Tom Morton who works for Climate Care explains more about this initiative.

Sections in this article

• How Climate Care Works

• Climate Care Projects

• Criticisms answered

• Where Next?

How Climate Care Works

We take a relatively small amount of money from people who wish to offset their emissions and undertake to fund projects that reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The reductions balance our clients' original emissions, making their activity climate neutral. The most straightforward way of doing this is to plant trees. Whilst trees and forests have many environmental benefits, they cannot offer the solution to climate change on their own.

New trees in Uganda aren't all of the solution.

Firstly, if we were to absorb the UK's carbon dioxide emissions in this way, we would have to cover an area the size of Devon and Cornwall in forest each year. We simply do not have enough land to do this. Secondly, we need to be sure that the trees remain in perpetuity, because if they burn down or are cut down and not replaced, the carbon that they store will be released back into the atmosphere.

We don't want to get too hung up on the arguments for and against trees though, because they are an "end of pipe" solution - they absorb the carbon dioxide once we have emitted it. What we need to do is stop the carbon dioxide being released in the first place by moving to clean technologies.

That is why Climate Care fund a range of projects which include renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Climate Care Projects

Climate Care is currently working on a large-scale project to encourage the use of biomass in the UK as a source of heat, replacing fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Biomass is renewable, because it re-grows each year. In many cases biomass isn't commercially viable and so we will be using the money from people who wish to offset their emissions to support the market.

Coppice in a growing rotation used as fuel. Image: Climate Care

The organisation is also working with the government of one of the small island states in the Pacific to distribute free energy efficient light bulbs to households and small businesses. The majority of the island's electricity is generated by diesel so any electricity saved makes a relatively large reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Climate Care also fund a forest restoration programme in Uganda, which is replanting an area of native rainforest in Kibale National Park. To date (March 2002) we have now contributed to the replanting of 23 hectares which was badly damaged in the 1970s. The Climate Care area forms part of a wider project within the Park. It is locally managed and provides employment for over 1,000 local people.

Kibale National Park, Uganda, location of a Climate Care Project.

Having a range of projects in an offsets portfolio is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it reduces risk: if one project is less successful, the carbon liability can be covered by another. Secondly, it reduces cost, as some projects are less expensive than others. Thirdly, it increases public engagement as there is more of a story to tell consumers.

Criticisms answered

If you have to drive do what you can to remove the CO2.

Won't carbon offsets make people use more fossil fuels? Aren't they just a way of salving your conscience?  These are criticisms that we receive all the time but which are invalid. If you are going to use your car, we firmly believe it is better to make a small contribution (1.5 pence per litre of fuel) towards projects that remove your CO₂ from the

atmosphere than simply drive and do nothing at all. People didn't drive more because unleaded petrol was introduced, so there is no reason to say they will if their driving is climate neutral. You may have a clearer conscience, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. When offsetting emissions with Climate Care you will know that we are funding projects that wouldn't otherwise have happened - in technical speak, they are all additional.

Where Next?

On ClimateX.org

Past ECI researcher Tina Fawcett gives her view of some of the issues addressed by Tom Morton in ‘Carbon in the UK Economy'. Some of the reservations about using forest regeneration to harness carbon dioxide are raised in ‘Carbon Sequestration' by Alison Colls, Environmental Change Institute.

External Links

Visit the Climate Care website.

The website includes a simple carbon calculator where you can calculate your household's contribution to global warming and offset your emissions online.

There are also other companies and charities aiming to help individuals and groups to offset their unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions.