Are Carbon Offsets Good or Bad? – GWC Mag

Should You Carbon Offset if You Fly?

 

In my previous blog I talked about how you can donate money to organizations which run projects to offset carbon emissions if you fly.  Like everything else, they have their pros and cons.

Some of the issues associated with carbon offsets are:

• Planting trees is a commonly-used offset project because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—including, presumably, that spewed from jet engines.  But trees absorb carbon at different rates depending on where they are planted, and they are susceptible to disease and natural disasters; or they may be felled or burnt before they mature.  If they don’t last their lifetime, they aren’t offsetting the carbon people pay for.
• Well-meaning projects don’t always work out as planned.  For example, young fruit trees were donated to disadvantaged women in India, to offer them an income source, as well as helping to mop up carbon emissions.  But two-thirds of the trees died.  Some of the women said they weren’t given water for the trees.  This may have been an education issue, a lack of funding, poor administration, or all of these combined.
• When you donate to a charity, you don’t normally control which projects your money supports.  It’s the same with carbon offsets, and some people view this as a disadvantage.  However, Continental Airlines decided to offer their customers a choice — “our European customers preferred to fund projects in developing countries while our American passengers wanted to contribute to projects in their own backyard,” they said.
• Carbon offsetting provides an easy and cheap way of undoing harm.  As such, it does not encourage individuals to make other eco-friendly changes in their lives.  At approximately 10 percent of the cost of the plane ticket, it is easier to pay, than to reduce your energy use at home for example.  It’s possible that carbon offsets may encourage people to fly more, not less.

On the other hand, there are of course big advantages to carbon offsetting.

• Carbon offsetting raises awareness of the problems of air travel.
• Some projects are very successful and would not have been started without the donations.
• For the sake of the environment, we need to reduce the amount we fly.  Yet flying is set to increase for at least the next 10 years.  So at least carbon offsetting will help, as the number of flights increases globally.
• It’s not very expensive, and it’s easy to do.
• Globally, neither governments nor businesses are doing as much as is needed to help fight the climate crisis. We all need to work together to solve the problem of climate change, and carbon offsets are something that each of us as an individual can do.
• When you donate, you might be funding trees to create new habitat for animals and helping to stop declining biodiversity. You could be providing employment to local people You might be funding solar-powered cookers in Africa which means less time spent collecting wood-fuel and more time in school for kids – and better health without smoke in the home.

Carbon offset programs are not a total solution, but an important part.  One carbon offsetter, Justine Johnson, a veterinarian from East Greenwich, R.I., paid more than $200 at myclimate.org to offset the impact of her car and plane trips for the year. She wasn’t sure it going to make a massive difference, but she said that it “was such a small investment that I figured I would do it anyway. Mainly I was casting a vote. I thought that if enough people demonstrate a willingness to put money toward solving this problem, then maybe the government will start listening.”

 

My Thoughts on Carbon Offsetting

Is carbon offsetting a “sugar hit” for your conscience? Yes.

Do some companies use carbon offsetting as an excuse to carry on polluting as normal but pay some money to say they’re good guys? Yes.

Carbon offsets are actually quite complex. If you pay some money to offset a flight, for example, it won’t go directly to planting some trees, it’s not straightforward.

But does it help?

In my opinion, yes, it helps, and we should all be offsetting – not just for flights but for our daily energy usage and consumption.

Why?

Because you’re routing money to buy good things, such as low-carbon stoves, tree-planting, solar energy around the world.

You’re not “offsetting” your emissions, but you are encouraging global decarbonization. It’s better for people to have solar energy than to continue to rely on fossil fuels, for example. You’re encouraging the good stuff.

Governments all around the world are failing to decarbonize. Most companies fail too – despite what they might try to tell you about how great they are (they’re not).

So, as usual, it falls to you and me to try our best to make a difference.

So yes, DO buy carbon offsets, for flights and for your daily consumption. It’s the right thing to do.

 

Next :  Top 3 Tips to get the MOST from your carbon offsets

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Related :  What’s the Problem with Flying?

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with new information since it was originally  published

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