RP144 What Are Carbon Offsets

RP144 What Are Carbon Offsets?

As the idea of global warming gains more acceptance in the world, scientists are scrambled for a way to stop it before it's too late. One of these ways is by using carbon offsets (also called carbon sharing).

Carbon offsets were designed to help countries comply with their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries agree to reduce their carbon emissions by a certain percent—carbon emissions are measured in tons of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. But because these countries only have to reduce their total emissions, not every business or organization—or even every country—has to reduce their emissions by the same amount. They just have to reach the correct total reduction.

Some countries, companies, and organizations can reduce their carbon emissions more easily than others. Carbon offsets allow them to sell these reductions to other entities that are moving more slowly. So a country or company can buy carbon credits somewhere else. This prevents carbon from being emitted somewhere, but not by that particular entity.

Carbon offsets are controversial, because they allow polluters to avoid reducing their own carbon emissions. "I won't turn off my tap. I'll pay someone else £10 to pay someone else £2 to turn off their own tap," explain members of the environmental group Rising Tide, which opposes carbon offsets. Others, however, say that carbon offsets are a good way to reduce emissions overall while big countries figure out how to cut their own emissions without hurting their economies.

As the Kyoto Protocol is enforced and the world becomes more serious about greenhouse gas reductions, carbon offset programs will become widespread. Understanding this complex issue is very important if you want to stop global warming. Keep researching, and decide for yourself if selling carbon offsets will help or hurt us all.