What are Carbon Offsets
We understand carbon offsetting as the practice of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions using specific projects to offset the effect of harmful gases emitted previously. The rationale behind purchasing offsets is to balance those emissions that cannot be avoided during the course of our normal lives. If one releases emissions when another sustainable alternate is available, it is generally frowned upon by eco-conscious people. Although offsets can be originated by reducing any of the six famous greenhouse gas emissions, one carbon offset is typically quantified as the cutback in harmful gases analogous to one metric ton of CO2.
Several European countries have made nationwide legislations that allow companies to release up to a particular volume of emissions. If a business releases more than the assigned limit, it needs to buy carbon offsets to settle the equation. While this compulsory necessity to maintain a low carbon footprint is the main driver of offset trading, there is another smaller voluntary marketplace. People who are eco-conscious buy offsets to decrease their personal carbon footprint though they aren’t obliged by law to do this.
So this is basically how the demand for carbon offsets arises, either through legislations that in some way penalize companies or because of rising consciousness amongst voluntary purchasers. Now how are offsets ‘manufactured’? Offset retailers participate in huge projects that aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions in hundreds of thousands of metric tons, and as discussed previously, each metric ton of CO2 cut produces an offset. Legitimate projects make certain that the aggregate emissions released on earth get controlled so the exact site of these projects is not a big concern.
Emissions mix into the environment and spread all over the earth rapidly; it does not matter eventually whether you release CO2 in UK, China or Europe as the aggregate impact will be identical for the global environment in each case. And that’s why several carbon credit projects are executed in South America even though most of carbon credit buyers are located in North America and Europe. It works well as cutting emissions in third world nations is mostly far cheaper than curbing the same quantity of emissions in European countries.
There are various viewpoints in favor of and against the practice of carbon offsetting but that’s another issue beyond the scope of this brief article. Generally speaking, carbon offsets do contribute in reduction of greenhouse gases if generated by genuine projects and sold with complete transparency.