Can I really offset my lifestyle?

Ah carbon offsets! Can you imagine life before them?

I find it particularly fascinating how a brand new term and concept has so easily slipped into the present reality of so many people. A year ago, even less for some people, very few people knew or understood what offsetting was or that they even had a carbon footprint. But within that time suddenly everyone wants to offset their entire life — travels, car, shopping, eating, farting… (yes you could theoretically offset your farts, they are methane after all).

So what is offsetting? How does it work? Who benefits? How do people make money from it? Is offsetting the same as trading?

The best article I’ve found in a while on the subject comes, unsurprisingly, from the Economist. The article explains how credit emissions are created and how they are priced and where they are traded. It also covers the sources of emissions and how they are being brought into the larger carbon offset market.

The author also provides a very good definition for what  the trade in carbon credit is about:

“The trade is not actually in carbon, but in not-carbon: in certificates establishing that so many tonnes of carbon dioxide (or the equivalent in other greenhouse gases) have not been emitted by the seller and may therefore be emitted by the buyer.”

There you go. This means that when you decide to offset your traveling you are in essence paying someone not to pollute for you. Its a nifty idea but does it actually happen?

This article dates back to March, but I think its a good snapshot of how carbon offsets work for the regular consumer.

[Treehugger.com is a good site for all sorts of up to date and relevant information and news on living a more sustainable life.]

I guess the question I’m left with, beyond the ones offered up in the Economist article on the workings of future carbon markets, is whether its really possible to just offset your life and keep living as we have for the past 150 years? I.e. could you just buy lots of relatively cheap — they are really affordable — and drive your fast car, fly to bermuda and not recyle?

The answer to that is probably no. Its not a zero sum game, its more like Commener’s closed circle. This offsetting business is offering us a nifty way to clean up our atmosphere, but for it to be really effective we do have to change our lifestyles. I’m not advocating for a radical change or that offsets aren’t a good idea. But a lot of the money that is getting poured into offsetting could maybe be better placed in developing new technologies that immediately reduce our carbon footprint.

This brings me to the current debacle in the Congress on upping CAFE standards.  Its been an interesting debate to observe, mostly because of the American car industry’s switch last week from full on misinformation campaign directed to keeping standards at the level they are now to a sort of half-hearted compromise.

The way the bill stands now by 2020 US car CAFE standards would increase to 35 mpg (currently at 25 mpg) with a 4% increase in mpg every year. The American auto industry (I specify American on purpose, Japanese and EU car makers are are already building cars with that level of mpg, it seems only Detroit lacks the techy know-how to catch up) changed its tack from all out opposition to support for an admendement to the bill. They are agreeing to the hike in CAFE standards but don’t want the 4% annual increase.

That kind of politics and lobbying makes me sick to my stomach. Some of the ads the car companies screened were full on misleading and pandered to American’s sense of fear. My personal favourite was one that went along the lines of “I want a safe car, not one with higher mileage” implying that you sacrifice safety for better mpg efficiency. I can read or hear that and think how misleading that is, but there are consumers out there who don’t see through the mixed messages and truly walk away thinking an SUV must guzzle to keep me safe.  Argh!!!

So back to what set me off down this road. Offsets are good, the markets are struggling but I think will work, however they are not a replacement for innovative technology and atmosphere-friendly choices.

iEarth

iTunes has compiled a list of Earthday [April 22, 2007] themed podcasts. They range from your typical hippy environmentalist to a National Geographic report.

The two I was most excited about seeing were — Inside Renewable Energy and Ahead of the Curve: Business Responds to Climate Change.

The second pod is also available as a video and about 12 minutes long. Its a quick watch and a pretty good topical overview of how business can look to climate change as a “win-win” situation. They give examples of companies that have reduced emissions and saved money by increasing their energy efficiency: big names like Dupont, Johnson & Johnson and Wal-Mart.[I recommend trying to ignore the choice of dramatic music, its a little over the top]

Don’t be too fooled by the all the good work they posit as examples. The information is a little shallow in its analysis, a lot of their examples of green products are green on the downstream but still remain high CO2 emitters on the upstream. They are also conflating clean energy strategies with the energy independence strategy exposed by G.W Bush. As to their conclusion on government policy, they go the likelihood that there will be a national cap and trade policy, which I also see as the likely outcome of any national legislature.

British Gas New Energy

The Guardian reported today on a British Gas launching a new business unit specialized in providing energy saving services to customers. Apparently 25% of the UK’s CO2 emissions come from homes and British Gas New Energy, as the new branch will be known, will provide services to help reduce household emissions. Their services will include:

1. Sale of photovoltaic panels to heat customers water: this is a great way to conserve energy and only requires small panels to do the job
2. Advise customers on how to reduce their energy usage to cut costs and emissions

British Gas sees this move as a potentially high grossing revenue stream for the company, a great example of a “green is good for business” model.