Carbon Offsets

It bothers me enormously when folks purport to care about the environment and then go ahead and buy carbon offsets. The reason it bothers me is because it does not promote individual or company responsibility. For those not familiar with the term it means mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) by paying someone else to reduce their emissions. It means I should be the one that quits smoking, but I am buying YOU the patch to quit instead. George Monbiot, an English environmentalist and writer, compared carbon offsets to the practice of purchasing indulgences during the Middle Ages, where people believed they could purchase forgiveness for their sins, instead of repenting.

Tree planting was the initial method used for carbon offsetting, but now renewable energy, energy conservation, and methane capture offsets are increasingly popular. The Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned offsets as a way for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits which can be traded on a marketplace. Carbon offsets are linked with official emission trading schemes, such as the European Union Emission Trading Scheme and the voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange

Tree planting has not worked so well everywhere as folks have planted non indigenous trees destroying eco-systems. Planting forests outside of the tropics does not offset climate change. Reforestation has worked better.

Renewable offsets include wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power and biofuel. One of the renewable offset projects sold in multiple markets is the Te Apiti Wind Farm in New Zealand, which supplies offsets to the Dutch Government, the British bank HSBC and to private citizens.

Energy conservation reduces the overall demand for energy. I know one of the biggest concerns for New York City is making energy-efficient buildings by reducing the amount of energy wasted in buildings through inefficient heating, cooling or lighting systems…in particular replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps ….but this will be a topic for another blog.

So for those of you in the polylactic acid business…make sure your farmers are doing their part to reduce emissions. Farmers know how…but you as the industry should not have to pay for them to reduce their carbon emissions. Doing the right thing should be incentive enough.