Carbon Offsetting for individuals and corporations

Beyond reducing consumption of energy and keeping an eye on efficiency, concerned individuals and corporations can take further steps to reduce their carbon footprint (how much you individually contribute to global warming gases.)   Although the US Congress has yet to enact any legislation to trade or tax carbon pollution via cap and trade or a simple carbon tax, many non-profit organizations already provide opportunities to support renewable energy and other carbon offset processes.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) maintains a list of approved US providers of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) offsets for individuals and corporations at http://apps3.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/markets/carbon.shtml?page=1 .   The monthly cost for a typical family to neutralize your carbon footprint is in the range of $10 to $20 USD.   Using carbon offsets, individuals and corporations can invest in mitigating processes which remove GHGs from the atmosphere using a number of techniques, the most common are :

• Investments in forrestation
• Investments in renewable energy infrastructure such as wind and solar power
• Processing of methane leaking from landfills, preventing the methane from escaping
• Sequestration of CO2 in deep stores / disused mines

Alternatively, individuals and corporations can also trade in carbon market credits.  Purchasing and retiring carbon credits drives up the cost of these credits by reducing supply, making polluting more expensive and renewable energy more cost effective.   Currently the US has not established a formal, regulated market for trading carbon credits, the most reliable market at present exists in the EU.   Several organizations sell EU carbon credits on the open market to invididuals and businesses worldwide.  Climakind provides such a service in $USD http://www.climakind.com/.


Ultimately, there is no one solution to climate change.  Indeed, due to inertia, the world will continue to warm significantly for at least the next 50 years even if all CO2 releases stopped today.  Momentum carries energy and the Oceans in particular will continue to store and radiate this increased energy for a long period.   However, through concerted individual efforts of households and businesses, we can have a significant collective impact.   Driving a Prius or eating organic are visible and popular actions to take, however, be aware of your total carbon footprint and, if you can, consider in addition to reducing consumption, the benefits of carbon credits and carbon offsets.



As a first step, take a look at the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) personal carbon footprint calculator, located here http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html, then, consider actions that can be taken to reduce consumption, following guidelines here  reducing individual emissions and here reducing emissions for corporations.   Finally, look into carbon offsets and carbon credits, at the links provided earlier.

I hope this information proves useful in adopting a carbon neutral lifestyle.




Further resources :

http://www.carbonoffsetlist.org/
http://www.carbonfund.org/