Which carbon offset scheme to choose?
Posted by DavidM in Family plan | 11 November 2006
I took my wife away for some winter sunshine in Lanzarote last weekend. It was a great break and for the first time I am going to offset our flight emmissions.
The problem is there are a lot off carbon offset schemes and I've heard that not all of them are as green as they should be. below are a small selection of those I found.
Target Neutral is run by BP and focuses on offsetting pollution from cars. I was worried the projects would be too forward looking and not sufficiently focused on carbon reduction now. However, the list of projects included biomass electricity generation and a wind turbine in India and methane capture on a Mexican livestock farm. An okay scheme but not relevant to me as it has no flight calculator.
CO2 Balance is a more complete site with offset calculators for a wide range of activities, importantly including air travel. My return trip from Heathrow to Lanzarote for 2 people created 1.64 tonnes of carbon and will cost me £15.00 to offset.
CO2balance only does 'additional' offsetting projects. This means the projects only happen because of the offset you buy - if you didn't buy the offset the trees wouldn't be planted. This looks a good scheme with plenty of broader information and a series of good, simple calculators.
The Carbon Neutral Company also has a range of calculators and their flight one allowed me to add that my flights were via Madrid. However, my carbon impact was slightly lower at 1.6 tonnes.
I was given 3 options for my offset; £11.84 for natural woodlands in the UK; £14.30 for work with international communities - such as low energy light bulbs in Jamaica and replanting forests in Bhutan; and £14.91 for the futures portfolio - the Jamaican light bulbs again and wind farms in New Zealand.
Climate Care had a simple flight calculator which worked out at 1.19 tonnes of CO2 assuming the flights were direct. The offset cost was £8.95. They had a good page on their approach to offsetting. Similarly to CO2balance they only fund 'additional' projects, they avoid double counting and get the emmissions reductions verified independently. In all, it seems a good scheme.
There are many other schemes to choose from. The Carbon Emmissions Offset Directory lists some, primarily US-based, with comparisons of prices.
In the end I went for the CO2 Balance scheme. I preferred the Climate Care one but to be honest I thought I'd look a bit tight going for the cheapest one.
