What is a Carbon Offset?

Nowadays, practically no product, service, or activity is free from carbon emissions. Every organization has a carbon footprint. Only the emissions that we cannot avoid should be compensated, when already exhausting all other measures. 

The offsetting of CO2 emissions consists of the contribution of an economical amount. This contribution needs to be proportional to the emissions generated. So no, paying $1 to offset your flight does not count. The contribution can be made to support a project that avoids or captures the same amount of CO2 emitted. For instance, building wind farms that replace coal-fired power plants.

The carbon offset market is relatively new and has a great potential. That’s because many countries do need this program to achieve their sustainable development goals by 2030.

Currently, 9 of the 10 largest nations producing offsets are in the developing world – according to the article published by Kavit Botkhataria on Next Billion. This shows that this market can be a form of growth for these countries since they would have the opportunity to invest more and more in renewable energy projects, reforestation and others.

Despite carbon offsetting schemes being a step in the right direction, offsetting carbon is not enough. It is not the solution to the climate crisis. Instead, additional measures are necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming and its related adverse effects.

If you want to know what to do at a personal level, check our post about what you can do to reduce your footprint!

References

Andreas. (2021). Environmetal Conscience. Retrieved from Environmetal Conscience

Brasil, I. E. (2019). Ekos. Retrieved from Ekos Brasil

ClimateTrade. (2020, September 16). Climate Trade. Retrieved from Climate Trade

Footprint, C. (2021). Carboon Footprint. Retrieved from Carboon Footprint

Morgan, B. (2019, August 26). Forbes. Retrieved from Forbes

Selin, N. E. (2020, August 31). Carbon Offset. Retrieved from Britannica

Trade, C. (2020, August 14). Climate Trade. Retrieved from Climate Trade

Borkhataria, k. (2021, January 21). Next Billion.