Carbon Offset Schemes - Can you trust them?
Michael Robertson. 2007.6
Households or organisations that have occasion to engage in activities that result in significant greenhouse gas emissions may wish to offset these emissions and so become “carbon neutral”. There are various schemes that will offset your emissions for a price. But how can you be sure you get what you pay for?
Carbon Offset Measures
Emissions can be offset through various measures:
- Biosequestration - Growing vegetation drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it as wood and in the soil, perhaps for more many decades.
- Energy substitution - A low emission energy source such as wind power can be used to substitute for a high emission energy source such as coal power, thereby reducing the emissions that would have been generated to supply the same energy.
- Energy efficiency improvement - Infrastructure improvements that result in reduced energy demand can avoid emissions that would produced in the absence of such improvements.
Carbon Offset Schemes
A number of carbon offset firms have appeared, offering to make you carbon neutral - for a price. But how reliable are they? And how easy is it to know what you’re getting?
Stated prices per tonne of greenhouse gas to be offset can vary widely. However it can be very difficult to discover (from reading their websites, or indeed talking to them on the phone) just what they are offering, and how quickly a given quantity of emission will be offset.
For example, some companies will sequester the emissions from your car use for a year at a modest price, through afforestation or revegetation projects. But closer examination reveals that it will take 30 years for the vegetation they have planted to do so. Taking 30 years to offset your emissions for this year, doesn’t count as being carbon neutral in my book.
Questions to Ask
What questions can you ask carbon offset providers to determine their validity?
Energy Substitution
In the case of low-emission power being substituted for high-emission power:
- Does the price include an extra offset to balance the emissions generated to construct, install and maintain the power generation and distribution infrastructure (ie an appropriate share of it)?
- Is there a guarantee that the power so generated would not be double-counted? For example, not counted toward meeting a Mandatory Renewable Energy Target? (Why pay for something that would have happened anyway?)
Energy Efficiency Improvement
In the case of infrastructure improvements to increase energy efficiency: Would the improvements have occurred anyway?
- Will the improvements lead to less energy consumption, or will they just create an extra incentive for energy use - by increasing the value obtained from the energy consumed?
Carbon Sequestration through Revegetation
In the case of revegetation projects used to pull carbon-dioxide out of the atmosphere:
- Does the price include an extra offset amount to balance the risk of later, inadvertent carbon-release (eg due to bushfire?) That is, to cover an appropriate fraction of the time that would be required for regrowth to resequester the carbon released?
- Does the price include an extra offset amount to balance the emissions caused by planting and maintaining the (total) revegetation area? Is the revegetation on land recently cleared for this very purpose, with no carbon price paid on the consequent carbon emissions? Or is it on land that was cleared decades ago? (Not much point paying for land to be cleared and then revegetated.)
- What is the future of the revegetated area? Is it, for example, and energy crop that will be harvested in five years, with no guarantee that a carbon price will be paid on that harvest?
- What contribution will the revegetation make to increasing biodiversity? Will it include a range of species, both trees and understory vegetation? Will the species planted be native to the area? To what extent will it provide habitat for other wildlife? (What biodiversity bang can you get for your buck?)
Given a hectare worth of revegetation:
- How much will it cost to establish that hectare of revegetation? And to maintain it while it is maturing, eg for the next 30 years? (If a company offering carbon offsetting through revegetation can’t answer these questions, then you have to wonder, what business does it think it’s in?)
- How much CO2 would be sequestered over the first 5 years, the second 5 years, and so on for 30 years? (How long must you wait for significant sequestration to kick in?)
In General
- Will the purchaser receive a document vouching that stated units of carbon dioxide have been avoided or sequestered? Eg so that a business that buys carbon offsets could show their own customers as proof of the business’s carbon neutrality?
- Will the document show exactly how the carbon was offset, in case there are extra benefits (or disbenefits) that the business might wish to take credit for (or avoid)? And so that business can check the validity of the service being offered?
Conclusion - Need for Regulation
The carbon offset industry is still in its infancy, and not yet well regulated (if regulated at all). If you want to purchase carbon offsets, make sure you ask the provider cogent questions, otherwise you may not get what you hope for.In the meantime, write to the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment, and ask what the Government is doing about regulating this industry? (Or indeed whether becoming “carbon neutral” means anything at all as far the Government is concerned.)
2007.7.31