ABOUT CARBON EMISSIONS
What Is Causing Climate Change?
The evidence is incontrovertible. As carbon dioxide emissions rise, so does the globe's temperature.
What Can We Do About It?
· Measure our greenhouse gas emissions.
• Reduce our emissions by reducing our consumption of fossil fuels.
• Offset those residual emissions that can't be avoided.
What Is Carbon Offsetting?
Our everyday actions consume energy and produce carbon dioxide emissions, for example driving a car, heating a home or flying. Offsetting is a way of compensating for the emissions produced with an equivalent carbon dioxide saving. Carbon offsetting involves calculating your emissions and then purchasing ‘credits' from emission reduction projects. These projects have prevented or removed an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere. Due to the fact that greenhouse gases have a long life-span and tend to mix evenly in the atmosphere it doesn't matter where gases are emitted in the world: the effect on climate change is the same. To make up for unavoidable emissions increases, equivalent emissions reductions can be made elsewhere, meaning that the overall effect is zero.
Will Offsetting Solve Climate Change?
Carbon offsetting is not a cure for climate change but it can help raise awareness and reduce the impact of our actions. The most appropriate action to take is to reduce emissions.
Offsetting is a useful element of what we can all do to address climate change for several reasons:
- Providing the means to work out the emissions from our own activities helps raise awareness of our impact on climate change.
- Combined with reducing our emissions, offsetting can be used to address this impact.
- When done in a robust and responsible way, offsetting leads to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the area local to the offsetting project, often in developing countries.
- Offsetting projects, such as those approved by the United Nations, provide a mechanism for investment in clean technology in the areas which lack it the most.
- Such investment can lead to the spread of low-carbon development across entire regions, further reducing climate change impact.
What Actions Can I Offset?
Individuals and businesses can offset the fuel used to power and heat their homes or offices, and can also offset their transport emissions from road, rail and air travel. It can be for a particular action such as a car journey, or activities over a period of time such as a person's annual mileage. Consumers can offset anything that produces emissions of greenhouse gases.
What Specific Emissions Are Offset By The Per AQUUM Programme?
- The approximate carbon emitted by our guests flying to Per AQUUM locations.
- The scheme is voluntary and guests can elect to donate as much or as little as they wish.
How Can I Be Sure That The Best Methodology Is Being Adopted?
Our chosen provider, PURE The Clean Planet Trust, has pledged to immediately meet the standards proposed by the UK Government Code of Best Practice. PURE is also a registered charity and hence subject to additional public performance requirements. Only credits from the regulated market are used, such as Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) and/or EU Allowances (EUAs) in accordance with the UK Government Code of Best Practice.
Isn't Offsetting Just About Planting Trees?
A technology-based approach rather than planting trees is favoured because avoided emissions are preferable to carbon sequestration through forestry.
The use of forests to mitigate global warming is limited due to the fact that the net amount of carbon they absorb could be released again in the future via fire, disease or changes in land use. There are also complexities involved in determining the amount of carbon they absorb. Moreover, trees planted today take too long to mature. Measures that reduce emissions are far more effective - especially those supporting the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Nonetheless, there are many good reasons other than carbon offsetting for supporting forestry, such as wildlife preservation or conservation.
Does Offsetting Make Carbon-Intensive Activities Sustainable?
Absolutely NOT!
Carbon offsetting is not a substitute for reducing emissions at source but is:
- the ‘next best' solution for mitigating remaining emissions from essential activities after all practical steps have been taken to reduce them;
- a means of raising awareness of travel climate change impacts and the choice of less carbon-intensive alternatives, and;
- consistent with UK Government policy that the environmental impact of the aviation industry should be reflected in the cost of air travel.
What Guarantee Is There That The Emissions Reductions Actually Take Place?
For Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), this assessment is ultimately made by the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a mechanism of the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol. CDM projects are regularly monitored and CERs cannot be issued until the emission reductions have been confirmed and certified. PURE - meeting the proposed UK Government Code of Best Practice - hence offers certainty of audit, verification and ‘additionality' by UN-approved third parties.
Carbon Offsetting And The Kyoto Protocol
Carbon offsetting should be "supplemental" to the primary goal of reducing our own emissions. Nevertheless, carbon offsetting is a vital part of the Kyoto Protocol. The United Nations Clean Development Mechanism has galvanised tens of billions of dollars of investment in developing economies, to help them to leapfrog over older, polluting technologies and to grow their economies in a cleaner way, then cancelling the credits that reduces the Kyoto emission cap so encouraging further emissions reductions in already developed countries - hence a dual environmental benefit. For more information visit http://cdm.unfccc.int/index.html
Examples of UN CDM emission reduction projects include:
- Wind-farms, hydro-power and other forms of renewable energy.
- Use of agricultural waste to generate electricity instead of burning diesel.
- Capturing of methane from landfills and agricultural lagoons and burning it to produce electricity.
- Retrofitting inefficient heating systems in universities or public housing.
- Refurbishing public transport systems to reduce pollution and congestion.
Under Kyoto, all projects used for carbon offsetting should meet the following standards:
- Credible Methodologies - Emission reductions should be calculated on a scientifically credible, peer-reviewed basis.
- Third-Party Verification - Claimed emission reductions should be subject to verification by a qualified third-party that has no conflicts of interest.
- Additionality - Projects should be dependent for their viability on sales of carbon credits - that way you can be sure that your money has made a real difference.
- Independent Regulation - The entire offsetting process should be subject to scrutiny by an independent regulator with the resources and power to rule out projects that do not meet the required standards.
- Transparency - All methods, standards and procedures should be publicly accessible.
- Auditability - There should be a secure chain of custody of the legal right to the emission reductions from issuance of the credit to the seller through to its final retirement from the market by the buyer.
This is precisely the approach used by chosen partner - PURE the Clean Planet Trust - to eliminate your emissions.
