offsets posts, articles, and infographics

Is Forest Carbon Just Another Commodity?

August 23, 2011 by NIck Oakes
with 265 views

Using REDD+ as a private sector offsetting mechanism runs the risk of creating perverse incentives, exposing land to market price volatility and causing supply-induced price suppression. However, for the purposes of a deeper exploration into the market-related issues of REDD+, let’s assume these problems are solved and that forest carbon can, in theory, be commoditised and traded. This begs the question of whether forest carbon can be treated and traded like any other commodity. [read more]

All of The Above

August 8, 2011 by Gernot Wagner
with 155 views

When most talk climate policy, they talk mitigation: decrease our ever increasing flow of carbon into the atmospheric sewer. Another piece of the puzzle is adaptation. We are way past the point where mitigation alone will do. We know we’ll feel the consequences of global warming for years, decades, and centuries to come. That’s why we... [read more]

Stoves, Carbon Credits, Profits and the Poor

June 17, 2011 by Marc Gunther
with 231 views

Neil Bellefeuille Today’s guest post comes from Neil Bellefeuille, co-founder and CEO of The Paradigm Project, which describes itself as a “social enterprise working to create sustainable social, economic and environmental value within developing world communities.” Neil and his partners started the venture in 2007; before that... [read more]

Can Carbon Emissions Markets Accelerate Smart Grid Progress?

December 27, 2010 by Christine Hertzog
with 1,675 views

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) recently initiated rule making for the state’s cap and trade regulation as part of AB 32, and it’s an important tactic towards reducing California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The first step to reduce the state’s GHG emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, and then an additional... [read more]

What's the matter with Arkansas?

November 30, 2010 by Gernot Wagner
with 552 views

Midwestern states have traditionally been reluctant to embrace cap and trade. Now it looks like they may well turn into some of the larger beneficiaries of the California cap-and-trade system. The largest supplier of likely carbon offsets for the California program so far? Arkansas. Midwestern suppliers Besides California and New York,... [read more]

Kerry-Lieberman adds some certainty on offsets

May 13, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 298 views

Overall, Kerry-Lieberman’s language on offsets shows a willingness to make hard choices on offset regulatory mechanisms for political, market, and in some cases environmental benefits…. [O]n the whole, the offsets provision provide a reliably cheaper way to GHG reduction, which will generally be legitimate environmentally….... [read more]

Carbon indulgences

May 5, 2010 by Lou Grinzo
with 162 views

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]

Trend? Another Carbon Offset Auditor Suspended

April 5, 2010 by Breakthrough Institute
with 130 views

Yet another carbon offset auditor was suspended in late March. And how is it that these carbon offsets are verified, again? The reputation of a Kyoto Protocol carbon finance scheme was dealt another blow after a UN climate panel late on Friday suspended the third emissions cut verifier in 15 months, and partially suspended a fourth. The... [read more]

Energy and Financial Interests Pushing Offsets in Senate Climate Bill

March 17, 2010 by Breakthrough Institute
with 269 views

Polluting energy companies and giant financial firms are once again allying to advance international offsets that have the potential to render a carbon cap entirely non-binding. The Coalition for Emissions Reductions Projects (CERP), wrote to Senator Maria Cantwell earlier this month criticizing the CLEAR Act she co-sponsored with... [read more]

Upsetting the Offset

March 11, 2010 by David Levy
with 235 views

Note by David Levy, Climate Inc. editor: I’m posting this introduction to a new book, Upsetting the Offset by my academic colleagues Steffen Böhm and Sidhartha Dabhi because it presents an important and well-argued series of critiques of the carbon markets. Many readers might find that they disagree with the analysis in the book, but it... [read more]

Your parents were wrong

February 7, 2010 by Marc Gunther
with 220 views

The Sierra Club and American Electric Power, the nation’s largest coal-burning utility, don’t agree on much, but there is this: Money does grow on trees. Along with other big environmental groups and such businesses as Duke Energy and El Paso Corp., they are part of a coalition that wants to use markets to protect the world’s forests... [read more]

A CLEAR Look at the Cantwell-Collins Climate Bill, Part 2: Structural Advantages

January 13, 2010 by Jesse Jenkins
with 89 views

Originally posted at the Breakthrough Institute In Part 1 of our analysis of the new Cantwell-Collins CLEAR Act, we demonstrated how the bill fails to make the investments needed to jumpstart a competitive American clean energy economy and fund the technology innovation and deployment needed to affordably secure deep cuts in U.S.... [read more]

The Problem with Offsets

November 18, 2009 by Ken Levenson
with 176 views

Carbon offsets are an alluring commodity to compensate for our consumption. But as Paying More for Flights Eases Guilt, Not Emissions by Elisabeth Rosenthal on the cover of today’s NY Times illustrates, carbon offsets may cause as many problems as they claim to offset. As the article notes, offsets have the counterproductive byproduct... [read more]

Forget the quality, it’s the 700 million tonnes which counts

November 16, 2009 by Barry Brook
with 208 views

Guest Post by Geoff Russell. Geoff is a mathematician and computer programmer and is a member of Animal Liberation SA. His recently published book is CSIRO Perfidy. ———————————- There’s a gross cognitive dissonance when a Government who professes to think that climate change is the defining issue of our generation can’t face down a... [read more]

Kerry-Boxer Bloated with Methane Offsets

October 22, 2009 by David Levy
with 220 views

David L. O’Connor argued in the prior post, Carbon Offsets Reduce Compliance Costs, that offsets available under the proposed Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill in the US would help reduce the cost of carbon allowances by about 70%, on average, between 2012 and 2050. The Kerry-Boxer version that emerged out of the Senate in early October... [read more]