We’ve spoken with non-profit offset providers from Switzerland, the UK, and the US in recent weeks. Carbon Catablog’s is on a mission to understand the voluntary carbon offset market from the POV of the non-profit provider. We’re slowly, but surely getting there.
The Swiss-based myclimate says through its non-profit status “trust and credibility is higher if you do this to make a real contribution to climate protection and not to increase your own wealth.”
CarbonFund from the US says, “we want to make every effort to keep our eye on the ball – and that means fighting global warming.”
And lastly UK’s PURE rationalizes its non-profit status, “PURE originated because of a pent-up demand from individuals and companies that wanted to voluntarily buy/cancel small volumes of Kyoto quality CER credits for offsetting purposes and were frustrated that they could not access the compliance market.”
Today we meet with Ruy Korscha Anaya de la Rosa, project manager of Goodplanet/Action Carbone. The website’s slogan sounds appropriately French: “Calculate, reduce and offset your CO2 emissions, clic here.”
We like Ruy’s answer when asked about the future of carbon offset providers. Does he see non-profits being competitive in the long-term? He replies: “Contrary to most of the carbon players and critics, [I] do not see the offsetting environment as a competition.
“All the carbon market participants are fighting for the same cause: to cool down our planet. We must not forget that we are dealing with global warming in here!”
Read on for the full interview.
Carbon Catalog: As a non-profit, what tax advantages can you bring to (a) individuals, and (b) businesses which purchase offsets through you?
Ruy Korscha: Action Carbone is a program which works under the auspices of the public interest association GoodPlanet. So, the funding collected from the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions is considered a donation.
Like all associations of public interest in France, GoodPlanet issues an official receipt that allows:
a) individuals to deduct 66 percent of their contribution from their tax obligations.
b) companies to deduct 60 percent of their contribution from their tax obligations.
These characteristics are fixed under the current French legislation. The non-French offset buyers should verify if these tax benefits apply to their country of residence. Moreover, according to the French legislation, the deduction is restricted to certain limits depending on the amount of contribution.
CC: Aside from the tax benefits, do you think a non-profit organization is a more appropriate structure for a carbon offset provider? If so, why?
RK: It is difficult to give you a straightforward answer. The appropriate structure, as you call it, depends on what you really want to achieve and how.
A non-profit organization usually does not have the means to engage in large-scale projects for example. However, the percentage channeled to the project from an offset paid to a non-profit organization is generally larger than from a for-profit company.
Therefore, it is up to the client to choose the offset provider and respective projects to meet his/her particular demands.
CC: How would you respond to the criticism that only organizations which seek profit are likely to be run efficiently? Do you think you can compete with for profit providers over the long term?
RK: I have not heard that criticism before and I strongly believe that it is based on weak arguments. The status of the offset provider is not a relevant factor as far as its efficiency is concerned.
The efficiency of an offset provider depends on its values, staff, selection criteria, related procedures, respective projects, internal benchmarks and its clients as well. Usually, the non-profit entities are small in size but this does not mean they run inefficiently.
We have experienced that the emerging Carbon Market is being overflooded with large companies and private entities pretending to make windfall profits from financing emission reduction projects. The idea behind this might not be entirely inappropriate due to the fact that it provides economic incentives to speed-up the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Nevertheless, because of this profit approach several projects in poor countries with high sustainable development criteria faced significant barriers to access Carbon Finance. Action Carbone tries to narrow the gap this situation is leaving open.
I, contrary to most of the carbon players and critics, do not see the offsetting environment as a competition. All the carbon market participants are fighting for the same cause: to cool down our planet. We must not forget that we are dealing with global warming in here! An alarming situation that will affect everyone of us regardless of our religion, gender, sexual preferences, nationality and social status. Nevertheless, the most affected will be the financially poor who are left behind in the carbon world.
Individuals and private companies fancy to buy offsets from Action Carbone because they see it as a donation and they prefer to give a donation to a non-profit organization than to a for-profit company. In addition, since Action Carbone finances only other non-profit associations, our clients like the idea of helping the needy ones.
CC: Who are your biggest offset buyers - individuals or companies? Can you disclose any names of people/organizations who offset with you?
RK: The biggest offset buyers are mainly the companies interested in their “green” marketing. Yes, of course we can reveal the names of our partners.
In fact, transparency is one of Action Carbone’s strongest principles. Hereby, I mention some of the biggest partners we have: Cortal Consors, Poweo, Tarkett, Veolia, Voyages-sncf, Accenture, Arval, Yves Rocher, Allô Thalasso and FRAM.
From individuals, we have offset the greenhouse gas emissions from Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Luc Besson, Céline Corvisier and many air passengers through Air France.
CC: Do you have a favorite or most popular project? If so, please explain.
RK: All the projects from Action Carbone are special since they enhance the living conditions of local underdeveloped communities in Southern countries. To wit, I give you the example of one project in our portfolio:
Project Developer” SKG Sangha is a non-governmental organization based in Kolar, in the State of Karnataka, South-Western India. SKG Sangha undertakes activities, experiments and research on renewable energies, collection of rain water, biological agriculture, capacity building, employment creation and other sustainable development related topics.
Since 1992, SKG Sangha has worked in the field of biogas and has installed the highest amount of family biodigesters in the world. SKG Sangha won the second prize of the Ashden Awards in 2007.
Baseline Situation: Indian families living in deprived rural areas depend on cow’s dung, firewood and kerosene for cooking and lighting. Women and children are the ones in charge of collecting this wood for 2-3 hours several days per week. This activity becomes increasingly annoying as forests disappear. Furthermore, women do not have their own income and depend on men for their total needs.
Project Situation: The diffusion of biodigesters combined with vermicompost units brings a real solution to confront the situation rural families in India are facing. Waste water, manure and kitchen residues are fed into the biodigester and are broken down by bacteria in the absence of oxygen resulting in biogas and slurry.
This biogas is used to cook more efficiently and faster replacing firewood and cow’s dung that was formerly used for cooking. Also, this biogas could substitute kerosene if used in a biogas lamp for lighting. Some slurry is used directly as organic fertilizer but most of the slurry in this project is moved to the vermicompost units.
CC: Please describe your organization’s rationale for becoming a non-profit. Is it a matter of ethics?
RK: Action Carbone is a program of GoodPlanet.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand, its director [who is also a photographer - one of his works appears left], decided to found this non-profit organization based on his ideas and beliefs.
Moreover, Action Carbone differs notably from most of the other carbon participants: Action Carbone does not expect to reap any economical benefits from the huge problem that global warming represents.
CC: How many tons of carbon did your org help offset in 2007?
RK: When you refer to tons of carbon I guess you mean tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO2eq) reduced per year, which is the common unit employed within the Carbon Market.
Action Carbone offset approximately 33 300 tCO2eq in 2007.
CC: Do you have buyers from other continents?
RK: Yes, we do. Nevertheless, these buyers are limited to individuals in American and African continents excluding private companies from overseas.
Thank you Ruy. For more research into who are the French carbon offset providers, see our page on Carbon Catalog here.
One Comment
l want toknow more about,so that we can collaborating together.
best regards
from
uganda, east Africa