One man's experience in buying carbon credits

Last week I wrote about my holiday in America, land of the freedom eagle. What I deliberately neglected to mention was that I fully offset my share, and my girlfriend's share of the carbon that the plane spewed out with carbon credits. Offsets. Credits. Carbons. If I dropped those words in the same sentence ten years ago I'd get blank looks from even the most unkempt of greenies. Now everyone is on the greenhouse gas bandwagon, even the developers of my dictionary software.

You all know the story by now. Man has a need for goods, those goods are made in a factory, the process of making those goods has unintended side effects that threaten the very existence of man, man consumes those goods and then demands more, rinse and repeat. Carbon offsets are the group of activities that man can undertake to mitigate those unintended side effects. So what are carbon offsets really?

quotation Offsets are an imaginary commodity created by deducting what you hope happens from what you guess would have happened.

- Dan Welch, some guy

More specifically, what are MY carbon offsets? I used a service called Carbon Planet, a NGAC (NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates) retailer. I live in Canberra and the ACT has a very similar scheme (in fact, almost a carbon copy, hur hur), but no retailers to carry it out. I don't mind buying ethereal goods from interstate, and the planet doesn't care where the carbon is "saved" from either. These NGAC things earn you green brownie points by investing your hard earned in any of three ways: green power generation, extracting carbon from the atmosphere by planting trees, and carbon usage reduction via efficient power usage schemes (lightbulbs, etc). So which did I choose?

The green power option provides funding for wind farms in New Zealand, and not for nuclear power. My preference for nuclear power, and distaste for renewables, is well known. The next wave of power generation should be that which has the most merit, not that which screams the loudest. I also believe that more efficient power usage schemes, though admirable, are not the answer to our predicament. No society has progressed by conserving their resources, and this is certainly the least influential method for developing countries to observe and adopt. Besides, I have a number of those new fancy lightbulbs in my place already. So green power and conservation schemes are no nos, this leaves forestry offsets. My purchase of 19 carbon credits resulted in the planting of just over 100 trees by the good folks at the NSW Government.

How was that figure reached? Let's get back to my holiday. My girlfriend and I took a return trip from Sydney to Chicago, a total of four person-flights in a Boeing 747, producing a total of 19 tonnes of carbon emissions. One carbon credit promises to reduce one tonne of carbon in the air. The going rate from Carbon Planet is AUD$23 per carbon credit, so to fully offset the trip I coughed up $437.

That seems like a lot of money for something that you can't touch, can't show off to your friends and has a tiny impact that won't be felt for years if not decades. It's both guilt money and recompense at the same time. Not only do I get a monkey off my back, but the Gaia Earth mother doesn't get raped at my expense. Well she does, but I make amends. That's a net celibacy.

Carbon Planet is a for-profit retailer. Though I don't want to turn this post into an advertisement for them, I do feel better in thinking of this as a business transaction rather than a charity case. Their mealticket is in making me feel as good as possible for giving them my money. $13 in each $23 carbon credit is used for the intended purpose, the rest is overhead, taxes and profit. That seems like a pretty good ratio to me, and a lot better than some charities can manage. Don't think I'm against charity though, I still cough up my $40 a month for some South American kid. Charity donations are of course tax deductible, where as buying carbon credits is not (though they may be with some crafty accounting). Tax deductibility is a big factor when competing in the feel-good market.

Let's assume that I've done the right thing by carbon offsetting my trip. There's an argument that, if indeed carbon credits are indeed the way to go, then it's the greedy, fat cat, military-industrial complex, multinational corporations who should be paying for them and not the general public. I guess dark factories billowing smoke are easier to blame than a happy family with kids playing in the driveway. The public can't expect industry to clean up its act without taking some responsibility themselves for consuming their products. That's like suing McDonalds for making you fat. If corporations were forced to carbon offset their production, the cost involved would be guaranteed to be passed on to the consumer. If the consumer directly pays, then the consumer at least has a choice.

My adventure with carbon offsets has an extra and unintended consequence. Avid readers to this site may remember the promise I made last year about getting a car. Here it is again if you're too lazy to click the link:

quotation I promise that my first new car will not run solely on petroleum.

- silpheed, 2007

My beef is that I don't like the greenhouse gasses that cars spew. For $115 worth of carbon credits every year, that environmental impact is nullified. Not much, is it? Suddenly owning a car becomes possible. My concern would be answered, though I'd have to break my word, and frankly my word isn't worth the breath used to expel it. Promises. Money. Which are you going to listen to?

I've got a bad feeling that drowning my guilt in money will be a lonely experience. People at one end of the scale will consider my actions a cop out, I should be reducing my use, supporting renewable power, blah blah blah. People at the other end of the scale will consider me a sucker for the global warming lie, the snake oil of the early twenty-first century. It's not easy being green, so I make it easier with the other kind of green.

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Comments

Well I just calculated my trip to the Philippines a couple months ago produced 5 tonnes of CO2 and would cost $115.00 to offset. =/

I think I'll use the carbon reducing method but I'll do it myself and just hold my breath for a few seconds now and then, and eventually that will offset it. Fuck, cash is a much scarcer resource for me than clean air.

djnapkin

The public can't expect industry to clean up its act without taking some responsibility themselves for consuming their products. That's like suing McDonalds for making you fat.

Spot on. The way some people carry on its as if the Industrial Revolution was forced down our unwilling pastoral romantic throats. "...and then the corporations get all... corporationy"

Mat

yay4u, a few black balloons were stopped from floating into our atmosphere.
carbon emissions are a natural part of mankind's evolution, and destroying our planet over the course of several thousand years is our right.
jesus died for our sins, one of which is totally fucking up this planet. i wonder how many black balloons of carbon are created when a terrorist blows himself up? maybe you can pick up the slack, silpy, and buy some more credits to offset those chaps.

Dr dooshy

if you want to really make sure you are doing good by the planet, make sure those offset credits go into renewable energy rather than into timber plantations.
There is a fairly decisive propaganda campaign by the timber industry to paint timber plantations as "Green" but the truth is they carry a whole range of problems.
Offset carbon trading with the credits going to renewable energy sources though is an absolute champion act for the planet, very commendable.