by Amanda
on Dec 10th, 2006
on Dec 10th, 2006
Carbon offset controversy
A ‘carbon offset’ is something you can buy to ‘repay the planet’ for some of your carbon dioxide emissions - like paying for someone to plant trees to balance the petrol burned in your car. Readers of the New Internationalist magazine will already know that ‘carbon offsetting’ is controvertial in some quarters.
Now the mainstream presse is also asking … are “the eco-conscious” simply “paying to ease guilt”? You can read the Associated Press story - or consider “the key question” - “Is your money helping to make something happen that wouldn’t otherwise happen?”
Carbon offsetting is an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, it is good to be able to offset carbon emissions from ‘necessary’ or ‘essential’ (and yes I know, I can’t define ‘necessary’ either!) activities, but on the other hand, it is also used to ease the eco-guilt of those who have the money to use more carbon than is necessary.
Take for example Land Rover. They have launched a ‘carbon offset’ program for 2007 which promises to offset Land Rover’s manufacturing carbon emissions and for the owner/driver, approximately 45,000 miles worth of carbon emissions on their £55,000+ Range Rover.
If these drivers were truly altruistic about climate change, would they be buying a vehicle that weighs so much, is so physically large, and has a V8 super-charged engine that does from 12.6 mpg. I’m not against 4×4 vehicles per se, but like anything, they have their place and appropriate uses.
I heard the other week that sales of large 4×4’s have taken quite a turn for the worse lately as the work of many grassroot groups (and Ken Livingstone) have started to make them unfashionable - and if there’s one thing that people with a spare £55k to spend on a vehicle don’t want, it’s to be unfashionable - whatever next, hemp knickers for the rich and famous?
I think that ‘carbon offsetting’ has a limited role to play. It should be new activity, to counter-act ‘essential’ climate change gas emissions, in parallel with a determined programme of emissions reductions. In other words, it should be the last resort.