No, I'm NOT paying somebody to offset my Co2.

I planted 12 trees this weekend, I have a water tank, energy efficient light bulbs and my quarterly electricity account is under $100. (for 3 people)

So I'd say I'm already offsetting my Co2 by reducing it at home.

HiLo,

I would love to explain in detail but will refrain for risk of being accused of SPAM.

My only comment is that making your own reductions is far better than paying someone else, but it will generally cost a lot more.

(be careful there are false credits available)

Right. So who decides which ones are real? Who manages and polices all this stuff?

(I'll be honest. This is one area where my scepticism starts to arise.)

HiLO, thanks for you interest.

For those who aren’t interested please move to the next post.

Here goes my best explanation;

All Carbon emissions are calculated as CO2 equivalents (CO2-e), thus methane, nitro’s oxide and various other greenhouse gasses are rated equivalent to a CO2 molecule. A methane molecule has 21 times the greenhouse effect as does a CO2 molecule so methane has a CO2-e rating of 21, thus approximately 47 kgs of methane is equivalent to a tonne of CO2.

A Carbon Credit (Carbon Offset) equals 1 tonne of CO2-e. Thus buying a carbon credit signifies that a reduction of CO2-e has occurred (be careful there are false credits available). To create a carbon credit we must reduce emissions in a way that was not business as usual and argue that the revenue from the credits were required to make the reduction happen.

Reducing power consumption in Australia is the most cost effective way to reduce CO2-e, and is considered the ‘low hanging fruit’ for every KWh used in Victoria produces on average 1.325 kgs of CO2-e. Thus by funding the reduction of 1 Mwh in Victoria you have saved 1.325 tonnes of CO2-e.

As most homes are reasonably efficient it is much cheaper to make large reductions in commercial areas. To make a reduction at home is a better step than offsetting, but you can only go so far before it becomes price prohibitive.

Carbon trading works, in 2001 the NSW electricity grid produced in excess of 9 tonnes of CO2-e per capita, through the NSW Greenhouse abatement scheme they have reduced it to 7.27 tonnes of CO2-e per capita. The national emissions trading scheme will have the same effect in reducing CO2-e for transport and our electricity grid nationally.

Hope this helps.

... Also before anyone accuses me of spam, no i did not mention my company and yes i do pay for advertising on this site.

RedSwitch,

I don’t have the answers but will pass your query on to our emissions assessors who should have some answer.

I focus on the effects of Carbon on markets and prices and stuff like that.

I reckon it'd go well in CV, personally