Understanding The Ins & Outs of Carbon Offsetting: Part 1
June 12, 2008
This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine.
Creation Care sat down with Eric Carlson, Executive Director of Carbonfund.org, to better understand the process of carbon offsetting.
Creation Care: How did you first get involved with helping the Evangelical Climate Initiative launch their Cooling Creation campaign?
Eric Carlson: The ECI has a great reputation and is becoming a leader in providing common sense solutions to climate change. This is Carbonfund.org’s goal as well. About a year ago we sat down with Rev. Ball, and it was immediately clear that together we could provide literally millions of evangelicals a simple, affordable and direct action to combat climate change. We both wanted to inspire people to reduce what you can, and offset what you can’t, so we laid the groundwork for this exciting program.
CC: What kind of potential did you see in evangelical Christians doing offsets?
EC: A few million evangelicals could change the world and stop climate change. I am not kidding. Just two to three million people, out of over a hundred million evangelicals, would be enough to help drive the price of renewable energy, such as wind energy or geothermal, below that of dirtier fuels such as coal. Since energy investment is so price sensitive, when this occurs, we’d expect to see energy investment change to renewables based just on economics. A few million people could spur a clean technology transformation that would increase US jobs and investment while reducing our reliance on foreign energy and making our country safer as well.
CC: And you work with both companies and with individuals?
EC: About half of Carbonfund.org’s offsets are from individuals and their families and the other half is from our corporate partners such as Dell and Lancome and organizational partners such as the National Wildlife Federation. To date, we’ve offset over 400 million pounds of CO2.
CC: Can you tell us a little about the kinds ofprojects you fund with offset money?
EC: Carbonfund.org lets you decide where your money is spent—on renewable energy, energy efficiency, or reforestation projects. We know some people prefer one type of project over another so we figure it’s your money, your choice. We then ensure each project meets strict national and international standards, certification and verification requirements. We’ve supported wind energy in Kansas and South Dakota, a low income solar housing project in Chicago, reforestation projects throughout the US and in India and Nepal. And we are very excited to be adding more projects all the time.
CC: So pollution generated in Atlanta might be offset by a project in Nepal? Doesn’t it matter where an offset project is sited?
EC: Not really. Some pollutants, like sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain, are localized pollutants, meaning the damage occurs near to where the emission occurs. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is a global problem; it traps heat in the atmosphere globally. So, in essence, it does not matter if you reduce a ton of CO2 in Brazil, Bermuda or Baton Rouge. We seek carbon offset projects globally that are cost effective, certified and have a positive social impact.
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hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.