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carbon offsets

Carbon Offsets Fraud Continues

June 15, 2010 by Breakthrough Institute
with 526 views
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It comes as no surprise that a broad-based coalition of activists are calling the bluff of 19 companies earning carbon offset credits through the Carbon Development Mechanism created by the Kyoto Protocol. The activists accuse the companies, based largely in China and India, of creating greenhouse gas emissions for the sole purpose of... [read more]

Carbon indulgences

May 5, 2010 by Lou Grinzo
with 162 views
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We’ve all heard the comparison between carbon offsets and indulgences, the latter being those documents that let Medieval Catholics exchange money for an official (or not so official) pass that let them avoid the penalties for committing sins. (See Wikipedia: Indulgence for some fascinating background on the topic.) I dislike this... [read more]

Forest Offsets Scam Exposed, Not a Strategy to Mitigate Climate Change

October 16, 2009 by WattHead Guest Contributor
with 433 views
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Originally posted at the Breakthrough InstituteSerious doubts about the efficacy of carbon offsets projects to produce real, verifiable emissions reductions have been validated by a Greenpeace report, released this week, that exposes a prominent sub-national forest offset project as a "carbon scam." The Noel Kempff Climate Action... [read more]

Rep. Waxman Responds to Breakthrough Institute, Criticizing Public Investment and Praising Offsets

June 29, 2009 by Jesse Jenkins
with 111 views
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By Teryn Norris Earlier today, Congressman Henry Waxman was asked to directly respond to the Breakthrough Institute's analysis of the American Clean Energy... [read more]

More on carbon offsets

May 1, 2009 by Lynne Kiesling
with 205 views
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Dwyer Gunn’s post on carbon offsets at the Freakonomics blog provides a good overview of the issues involved in carbon offsets: The offset credits are a popular component of most cap-and-trade proposals because they have the potential to lessen the economic costs of the programs. The cost of upgrading to environmentally friendly... [read more]

Offsetting for good

September 10, 2008 by Gernot Wagner
with 117 views
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Voluntary, private offsets for carbon emissions have puzzled economists for a while. First, of course, why would people buy them if they are voluntary? Turns out they do. Second, and perhaps more important, how can we ensure that they do indeed make a difference, since some can even be counterproductive. (That's particularly true for... [read more]

The future of carbon offsets

August 3, 2008 by Simon Donner
with 56 views
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The carbon offset game is fraught with problems. A myriad of companies now promise to offset your personal emissions through activities like protecting forests, planting trees and investing in renewable energies. Even for the most responsible and earnest of companies, the emissions reductions are difficult to quantify or verify. And... [read more]

Regulated carbon offsets in NC

June 13, 2008 by John Whitehead
with 53 views
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From Tuesday's Raleigh N&O: N.C. GreenPower is venturing into a hot market, selling "carbon offsets" to cut greenhouse gases. The Raleigh nonprofit group received regulatory approval Monday to let state residents offset the carbon dioxide emissions they cause for as little as $4 a month. Buying carbon offsets has taken off as a... [read more]

Boxer bill update: Probably no U.S. CO2 emissions cut until after 2025.

May 27, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 97 views
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I made a mistake about the Boxer substitute for the Lieberman-Warner bill. Every year, it allows into the market enough offsets to cover 30% of the total quantity of emissions allowances. I had said it was 15% (here), which was a loophole the size of the Gateway Arch. How big a loophole is 30% offsets? Wait and see. I had said the three... [read more]

Climate speech, part 3: John McCain loves big government

May 13, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 95 views
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Sen. McCain believes in much bigger government than I do. Who knew? I don’t mean his endorsement of France’s nuclear strategy — although it is going to take a lot of government subsidies and mandates to get this country to build trillions of dollars worth of new nuclear plants by 2050, and McCain would have to force several states to... [read more]

Reforming carbon offsets, first in a series

April 23, 2008 by Daniel Hall
with 114 views
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How well is the carbon offset market working? Not as well as might be hoped; the Wall Street Journal has done much recent reporting on how the architects of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) — by far the largest carbon offset program in the world, and a key part of many countries’ strategy to achieve compliance with the Kyoto... [read more]

Indulgences?

April 4, 2008 by Daniel Hall
with 63 views
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Reader Alisdair takes a swipe at cap-and-trade systems by comparing emissions permits to indulgences. How original! Unfortunately for him the analogy is as spurious as it is cliché — carbon emissions impose widespread costs on society; at the margin the price of eliminating some of those emissions is less than the burdens they impose;... [read more]

Confused Washington Times disses McCain and Obama on carbon offsets

February 19, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 56 views
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In a bizarre twist, the conservative Washington Times, which would normally be critical of fuzzy environmental strategies like carbon offsets, is actually attacking the candidates for not offsetting all their campaign emissions. Opening with an absurd headline, “Green Crusades lot of talk,” the Times writes: Sens. John McCain and... [read more]

Campaigning is Dirty Work

January 25, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 78 views
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And we don’t just mean the banter and attacks on integrity and voting records going on in the primary races for the party nominees. There’s also the physical campaign trail, littered with greenhouse gas emissions from traveling across the country and between cities in contested states. So, meet Standard Carbon LLC, introducing a new... [read more]

So there’s no value to green business? Wait, what about carbon offsets!

October 23, 2007 by JenniferDillon
with 85 views
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I’m always uncomfortable when I read articles about green-washing and the fallacies of the green industry; I don’t want the occasional missteps to be provided as an excuse to walk away from the potential benefits.  But Business Week has an article ‘Little Green Lies’  that walks the line between provocative and painful truth.... [read more]