What is carbon offsetting?
Turning
the carbon taps on full blast
Everything we do in our daily life releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, or carbon for short, is now released in such quantities that this has created an environmental imbalance with global warming as a consequence. Our planet cannot cope with the amount of carbon almost 7 billion of us are producing all at once due to the use of fossil fuels for transportation, heating and industry. As a result, the system is clogging up. Much like our kitchen sink, if we leave the taps on full blast - unless we give the drains a chance to clear the excess, the kitchen floor will soon be flooded.
Limiting our carbon footprint
We can help by reducing our own carbon output in the first place. Screening the products and services we buy and choosing the low-carbon alternatives will help. Then there will be less carbon emissions to cope with. No matter how effective we are at limiting our carbon footprint and 'turning off the taps', however, there will always be an amount of carbon emissions we cannot avoid in our modern world. Think of the energy involved in growing the food we eat and transporting it to our supermarkets or the need for medical services. Fortunately, this does not mean the end of our options. Once we have reduced as much carbon as we can, we can compensate the rest with a reliable carbon offset scheme.
A closer look at offsetting
We can maintain our quality of life and still effectively fight global warming by compensating our carbon emissions. In fact, carbon compensation or offsetting can be done in various ways. Projects focused on renewable energy or energy efficiency 'turn the carbon taps off', as it were, by reducing the amount of carbon produced in the first place. Other projects focused on forestation and carbon capture work more like 'creating another drain in your kitchen sink to deal with the excess water'. These projects reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere by helping to absorb it. And as deforestation accounts for 20% of global carbon emissions, planting trees to replace those being cut down is another way to make a difference where it counts.
Offsetting the ClimaCount way
Offsetting also involves a lot of time-consuming research to find reliable carbon offset projects that really do what they promise (it's almost as hard as finding a reliable plumber). That's why ClimaCount set up The Climate Compensation Fund to take care of this difficult task. This independent fund invests ClimaCount card proceeds in effective programmes of various kinds. It vets offset projects according to the most up-to-date green criteria available and evaluates their accreditation. Most importantly, it reports on, monitors and makes transparent all aspects of these projects. So that you can be sure you are contributing to carbon offset programmes that work.