Offsetting
From ClimateNetworkWiki
Offsetting is the practice of paying for the reduction of an amnount of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equivalent to the impact of one of the purchaser's activities. For example, a plane trip can be offset by paying for the reduction of an equivalent amount of GHGs emitted by the trip. With the exception of some rare cases, offsets must be purchased to make a large organization climate neutral because of the difficulty of running such institutions without any GHG emissions at all.
Offsetting is controversial.
This page is part of the Knowledge Base and part of the Collective Action Working Group's research.
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Offsetting and the BC Government
In the 2007 Greenhouse Gases Reductions Targets Act the government mandated all public sector organizations to go carbon neutral by 2010. Requirements for achieving carbon neutral status are as follows:
- In order to be carbon neutral for a calendar year, a public sector organization must
- (a) pursue actions to minimize its PSO greenhouse gas emissions for the calendar year,
- (b) determine its PSO greenhouse gas emissions for that calendar year in accordance with the regulations, and
- (c) no later than the end of June in the following calendar year, apply emission offsets in accordance with the regulations to net those emissions to zero.
- In order to be carbon neutral in relation to the PSO greenhouse gas emissions referred to in section 5 (2) [emissions related to travel] for a calendar year, the Provincial government must
- (a) pursue actions to minimize those PSO greenhouse gas emissions for the calendar year,
- (b) determine those PSO greenhouse gas emissions for that calendar year in accordance with the regulations, and
- (c) no later than the end of June in the following calendar year, apply emission offsets in accordance with the regulations to net those emissions to zero.
The question left to awnser is what the regulations alluded to in the legislation will look like and what it will look like for post-secondary and other public sector institutions.
Important Characteristics
*Additionality: "Emissions reductions are “additional” if they occurred because of the presence of incentives associated with the existence of GHG markets, voluntary or mandatory. A variety of stakeholders have proposed many different additionality “tests,” but at its root, demonstrating the additionality of a carbon offset means showing that the emissions reductions being used as offsets are not “business as usual.” Business-as-usual emissions are generally referred to as the emissions “baseline” (from the Clean Air Cool Planet Consumer Guide to Carbon Offsets)
*Permanence: "The offsets would not be subject to potential reversal in the future (as can occur with carbon sequestration projects where the trees might die by fire or pest infestation)." (from the Clean Air Cool Planet Consumer Guide to Carbon Offsets)
*Verifiability: It is important that offsetting projects are monitored and verified to ensure that the GHG reductions are actually occuring
Offsetting Projects
There are many kinds of offsetting projects. They range from the capture of methane gas at landfills to tree planting.
Offsetting and Carbon Markets
Offsetting can be seen as a preliminary, often voluntary, step towards the creation of carbon markets that will trade GHG emissions. These markets are designed to allocate resources to reduce GHG emissions as efficiently as possible. This outcome is achieved organizations with low costs for reducing their emissions sell emission credits to firms with high costs of reducing their emissions.
For example, if organizations had to purchase emissions credits for all of their GHG emissions, and if the cost of an emission credit was $25, than organizations would initiate projects to reduce their emissions
