Can they really do that? (0)
Posted 3 August, 2008 in Carbon offsetting, Carbon trading, Footprint reduction
This is a neat twist in the world of carbon offsets. There’s a straightforward emissions calculator that you can use to tot up your CO2 output from household, car and air flight sources. Once you know how many tonnes of CO2 you need to offset (having remembered the golden rule: to reduce your emissions first) you pay the appropriate amount.
The clever bit is that the amount charged per tonne (plus the admin charges and hedge fees by which the company makes its money and protects itself from market swings) is the current trading rate on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme — the same scheme that big business uses to buy and sell the “right to pollute”.
Say you wanted to offset ten tonnes of CO2. Right now (3 August 2008) that would set you back 229 quid. Carbon Retirement — the name of the company that does exactly what it says on the tin — will buy that amount of carbon trading tokens on the market… and retire them. In other words, the EU loses that amount of CO2 emissions rights. Oooh, the devastating simplicity of it all!
We should gasp in awe that it’s allowed. If the company takes off, others will inevitably jump on the bandwagon. If they start having a noticeable impact on EU emissions (and let’s face it, that is the idea) the price of carbon will rocket, making it more expensive to offset each tonne. Not only that, but the energy producing companies and other businesses involved in the trading market for production reasons will no doubt pass those additional costs on to their customers.
And what if, say, a rogue state were to start buying up emissions certificates en masse? What would the economic and political fallout be?
For the time being, though, full marks must be awarded for creative thinking. We wish Carbon Retirement every success and are keeping our fingers crossed that no one notices what they’re up to…
Low tech is back! (0)
Posted 27 July, 2008 in Uncategorized
…and so am I. Apologies for being way for so long, but there were good reasons.
Isn’t this (click here) just the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen? Apart from the crappy, cheesy, meaningless PPB at the end. (Gandhi was a great chap and all that, but seriously confused over the whole “does he, doesn’t he exist?” God issue.) Long sharp pointy tools that are great for cutting graminaceous plants down are really cool, but there seriously isn’t a fella with one who comes to get you at the end of your puff.
You just die. Hopefully happy.
CO2 goes live! (0)
Posted 9 April, 2008 in Carbon trading, Emmissions monitoring, Political issues
Researchers based at Purdue University have posted a YouTube video showcasing Vulcan, a project to increase the resolution of carbon dioxide emissions across the US. You can watch it by clicking the link below:
North/South divide (0)
Posted 30 March, 2008 in Climate change, Forests and woodlands
Again, I posted something elsewhere, this time about efforts to understand how climate change is going to affect Scots pine. The question is important to me right now – for reasons I might go into some other time – but the immediate (and much more general!) significance is the way the research highlights the complex relationships between even a single species and its environment. The results, published in Ecology Letters, aren’t Earth-shattering, although they are well shored-up from a methodological point of view. (more…)
Sooty’s here… where’s Sweep? (0)
Posted 24 March, 2008 in Alternative power, Biofuel technology, Carbon offsetting, Climate change
Earlier elsewhere, I posted something about a paper in Nature Geoscience that raises the sooty spectre of black carbon. There’s nothing quite so alarming as scrambling across what should be a pristine glacial environment to find it covered with a sheen of black ash. Well, those deposits, fallout from the combustion of biofuels – “environmentally friendly” wood, dung and crop waste – are a sure sign that life is not as simple as turning our backs on fossil fuels. Indeed, we should perhaps think about how we could use whatever oil and gas we have left to expedite a genuinely cleaner alternative, rather than jumping on any bandwagon that happens to be passing by.
In particular, converting from oil- to wood-based forms of power generation should be brought under closer scrutiny. The paper’s authors, Professors “Ram” Ramanathan and Greg Carmichael, note that black carbon is the second most potent source of global warming in the current cycle after carbon dioxide. The idea that burning wood is somehow simply recycling current carbon stocks – as opposed to the long-buried black stuff – clearly isn’t all that simple. But then nothing ever is, is it?
An experiment… (0)
Posted 21 March, 2008 in Carbon offsetting, Carbon trading, Footprint reduction
Most of the ads at the side of this page seem to be selling various carbon offsetting projects. No surprise there then. So for a while I’m going to check each one with a standard set of criteria, in an attempt to draw up a picture of how this newfangled industry is shaping up. It’s just a wild guess, but it seems likely we’ll find a wide range of the kinds of services offered, how much they cost, and how genuine they are. Check back here on a regular basis and I’ll bring you running updates of how it’s going.OK, so it’s not really an experiment. More of a survey. But hopefully some good will come from it…
A moving target (0)
Posted 18 March, 2008 in Carbon offsetting, Carbon trading, Political issues
So is the UK making cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions or not? Well, that depends on which set of statistics you use. First, there are the stats that the Government presents to the UNFCCC, which appear to show that we’re doing rather nicely, thank you very much. Then again, there’s the more comprehensive set of figures – the Environmental Accounts – that the Office for National Statistics prepares. Crucially, the Environmental Accounts include emissions associated with international aviation and shipping. (more…)
Not a car in the world (0)
Posted 17 March, 2008 in Carbon offsetting, Footprint reduction
Traditional carbon offsetting schemes not hard enough for you? OK, give your car keys to www.carlesscarbon.com. The non-profit internet start-up will drive your old, polluting banger to the scrapyard, pick it over for recyclable parts, then throw the rusting carcass in the crusher. Voila. One less car on the road. And if you pledge to remain car free, they’ll even give you a year’s public transport travel pass. (more…)
Just bag it (1)
Posted 14 March, 2008 in Alternative power, Biofuel technology, Carbon offsetting, Carbon trading, Climate change, Footprint reduction, Political issues
One of the documents released with this year’s UK budget – intriguingly entitled “An environmentally sustainable world” [they forgot to add the bit about being in a human timescale] — gives thirteen announcements on how the Government intends to tackle climate change. Number twelve is “to eliminate single-use carrier bags” and warns that the “Government will legislate and impose a charge if retailers do not take voluntary action.” (more…)
[More] claptrap from “on high” (0)
Posted 11 March, 2008 in Climate change, Political issues, Religion and environment
You all know the Seven Deadly Sins, the ones that they made the film about? Well, they’re no longer deadly enough according to the Vatican. Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti has come up with a new list, especially designed for the media-savvy generation of new kids on the block. Here’s the things you shouldn’t get mixed up in, if you don’t want to be eternally toasted (in not a nice way):
Environmental pollution
Genetic manipulation
Accumulating excessive wealth
Inflicting poverty
Drug trafficking and consumption
Morally debatable experiments
Violation of fundamental rights of human nature. (more…)
