 There has been a slowdown in the global economy, but that’s not what seems to be the limiting factor in the global carbon market growth, which reached $64 billion in 2007, the World Bank reports in this Reuter’s story.
Reuters says that the global carbon market more than doubled in 2007 to $64 billion, but that “masked slow growth in actual greenhouse gas emissions cuts,” according to the World Bank’s carbon finance unit.
It seems that the future-forward climate change policies in the West are working like a charm to limit the production of greenhouse gases. These policies have created a boon in emissions permits demand. Read More »
The carbon offset market is awash with guides, policy manuals and technical specs, which can put most of us to sleep after the first chapter. While it’s important to offset your carbon emissions – that’s the whole basis of our existence – making your life close to carbon neutral in other ways should come first. And figuring out how to do that shouldn’t be boring.
To help you learn how to put your lifestyle, home and community on a “carbon diet” Carbon Catalog has gathered an essential reading list bound to hold your interest. Because we do advocate consuming less and recycling, when you can, if you buy the books, be sure to share them with your family, friends – and at the end of the line – your community library. Read More »
(A Few Good Men: CLIMACT’s Pascal Vermeulen, Dimitri Mertens and Hugues de Meulemeester)
Carbon Catalog’s been globetrotting over the last few months, but virtually in a carbon neutral sort of way. During our travels, we’ve handpicked a sample of carbon offset providers from the offsetting world, in order to make sense of the market, because consumers want to know: If given a choice, is it better to offset with a for-profit provider or a non-profit one?
An entire series (see roundup here) on non-profit providers has already been prepared. And earlier in this series on for-profit providers, we’ve met with Canada’s ZeroGHG and America’s TerraPass.
Today we speak with Belgium’s CLIMACT: A few good men who have one very clear mission: Preserving the environment for future generations by minimizing GHG emissions.
Leaving some impressive high-end careers in their wake, the company’s three founders now poised to tackle climate change, see both local and international players such as ClimateCare and Carbon Neutral as competition.
They also think that fighting climate change should be a positive action, and not something companies or individuals do as a punishment: “Bottom line ROI always has to be positive,” says Hugues de Meulemeester, CLIMACT’s engineer and financial expert, “even if the company is very CSR minded. And we can help make the ROI of fighting climate change positive.”
Read on for more: Read More »
 The voluntary carbon offsetting market is young and because policies and strategies differ around the world – as well as opinions – we’ve been talking with a variety of organizations and companies.
Two weeks ago we interviewed America’s for-profit carbon offsetter, TerraPass. And previously, we cast our net wide and interviewed non-profit providers from countries such as France, Switzerland and the UK (see the round-up post here)
Continuing with our interview series on for-profit providers, today we talk with Canada’s ZeroGHG. Adopting a hybrid business model, ZeroGHG sees offsetting as only part of their business strategy.
Writes Mary Sutera, the president of ZeroGHG based in Montreal: “our organisation is focused not only on providing offsets but also helping our customers with developing successful GHG strategies. In fact, we see our offsetting services as an add-on to our consulting services and not the other way round.”
ZeroGHG provides “our customers with quality service, we are not in this for the glory,” she adds.
Now for the interview: Read More »
If you don’t have much of a real life, consider offsetting your virtual one: starting this week some 20 million registered users participating in the multi-player game Second Life (SL), now have a chance to offset their carbon emissions produced during play.
Linden Labs, creators of the game, recently partnered with 4Offsets and Jorel Ventures, a Second Life property developer. The triad have created a store in Second Life where you and your avatars can learn about offsetting, and purchase offset credits to balance the greenhouse gases created while online. Read More »
The question comes up among policy makers and those in the carbon offsetting business, and more recently among consumers: should carbon offset providers be non-profit entities, or will carbon emissions be more effectively reduced by for-profit companies who make money with every offset purchase?
After Carbon Catablog’s series of interviews from the non-profit world (see the roundup here), today we speak with Tom Arnold, founder and chief environment officer of America’s famed TerraPass.
A fan of reading blogs for news and offsetting information, Arnold says his company is motivated both by profit and the mission of saving the environment. With a money-back-guarantee on offset purchases, Arnold says, “TerraPass challenges the traditional assumption that you either work on a business that destroys the environment or work at a non profit to protect it.”
Armed with educational resources and a web presence like no other, TerraPass has a bold goal to build a world where as many people offset as recycle.
And does this world include both for-profit and not-for-profit carbon offset providers? “Yep, there’s room for both,” says Arnold, “Just like car sharing or childcare, a blend of for-profit and non-profit business models have flourished.”
Read on. Read More »
 Obama and Clinton are neck-in-neck in a very hot race for presidential candidacy. But who will be the best Democrat for the planet?
According to Salon, the greatest threat to America’s future won’t be terrorist attacks or national security, it will be the effects of global warming and unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions.
So what are the Democrat candidates’ take on this issue? Read More »
 WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, just released a report on standards in the carbon offset industry. The report’s full title is “A Comparison of Carbon Offset Standards - Making Sense of the Voluntary Carbon Market”. You can download the PDF here (3 Mb).
Carbon is often described as the world’s most complex commodity. A tonne of carbon is nothing like a barrel of oil or a bushel of wheat. It’s a promise to prevent emissions that would otherwise have taken place. But you can’t see or smell a carbon emission, and who knows the answer to “what if”? As a purchaser of offsets, how can you make sure you’re buying the real deal?
While in theory it’s possible to evaluate offsets, it’s no cakewalk. A standard makes life easier by letting you rely on the expertise of the best. Think of it this way: if your doctor has a degree from Harvard, would you check if he knows an elbow from a knee?
The report suggests 3 standards will dominate in the coming years: Read More »
The Internet makes almost everything easier these days – buying plane tickets, finding your true love, and managing your finances. But tread warily if you go online to reduce your carbon footprint, warns the Scotsman today.
“Carbon offsetting websites are inconsistent and confusing, with costs varying by up to 540 per cent,” says the Scotsman. The paper is referring to a new report by Which? Money, whereby the business paper found enormous variability in how a carbon offset provider calculates a carbon footprint, and how much they charge to reduce it. Read More »
    
Choosing how to offset your carbon dioxide emissions is complicated business. Readers have been asking us: what’s the difference between providers who offset for profit, and those who offset as non-profit organizations?
In our quest to find some answers we spoke with five different prominent non-profit providers from around the world – the United States, France, the UK, Canada and Switzerland.
Concern about global warming was the common denominator for all, as well as offering tax credits only to citizens of the country they were operating within. But each offered a different rationale for the non-profit designation.
Of course we’ll be able to paint a more colorful picture of carbon offset providers when we interview for-profit providers in the coming weeks. Until then, here’s some non-profit tidbits that we picked out from the interviews. Read More »
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