I've noticed a few ads on this site for carbon offsets. They allow you to pay someone else to capture CO2 to offset your own emissions. It seems fairly cheap - less than $10 per ton of CO2, which is quite a lot. But do they work? Is there any guarantee that the Co2 is captured permantly? Does your payment actually increase the amount of carbon captured, or are you simply given credit for capture that would have happened anyway?

That sounds like carbon trading, which does give some real reduction as you have to limit the total emissions before trading kicks in. You are right that the actual trading itself doesn't reduce emissions though - it just shifts the cost to where it is lowest.

These carbon offsets are being marketed as a way to eliminate your personal emissions.

it sounds like a scam to me and should not be allowed to trade of carbons. This is probably not even reducing emission. Why even partipate then? This should not be allowed to continue this way.

It seems the government has some kind of approval system set up:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Govt-hails-IT-companys-green-policy/2007/01/19/1169095969801.html

Environment Minister Ian Campbell has congratulated an information technology company on its breakthrough commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

But the carbon-neutral Australian Democrats are unimpressed, saying Senator Campbell has failed to do anything as basic as putting parliament house offices on green energy.

The Renewtek company has become the first Australian-operated IT company to go carbon neutral under the government's Greenhouse Friendly program.

Senator Campbell said Renewtek had committed to ensuring its greenhouse gas emissions would be fully offset by Greenhouse Friendly approved abatement.

"Renewtek's Greenhouse Friendly certification is a significant achievement, meeting international standards and best practice," he said in a statement.

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/NSW-community-vows-to-halve-energy-use/2007/01/19/1169095967127.html

A NSW south coast community group is promising to halve its shire's energy consumption by 2020.

Bega Valley's Clean Energy for Eternity group has launched the 50-50 by 2020 campaign, which also aims to ensure only 50 per cent of the energy used in the shire is from non-renewable sources.

Australia has a mandatory renewable energy target (I think about 1%). If you sing up for green power, do the power companies make switches in addition to the mandatory targets, or are you just footing the bill for something they would have done anyway?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/NSW-enthusiastic-about-green-energy/2007/03/06/1172943388834.html

Record numbers of NSW residents are switching to GreenPower with about 2,000 a week signing up to use environmentally friendly energy.

GreenPower is a national accreditation program that sets environmental and reporting standards for renewable energy products offered by electricity suppliers to households and businesses across Australia.

"When you sign up for GreenPower, energy suppliers commit to buying a specified amount of electricity from clean, green, renewable sources like wind and solar," Mr Iemma said.

Mr Iemma said the figures show GreenPower sales in NSW in the last quarter of 2006 were close to 65,000 megawatt hours.

"In fact, the total sales in NSW in 2006 exceeded 285,000 megawatt hours - higher than any other state," Mr Iemma said.

"The carbon saved was the equivalent to taking almost 64,000 cars off the road.

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/EU-still-stuck-on-green-fuels-target/2007/03/06/1172943388825.html

European Union foreign ministers have failed to agree on whether to set binding targets for the use of green renewable energy sources, setting up a potential clash when the bloc's leaders meet this week.

Diplomats said almost half the 27 member states opposed a drive by the EU's president, Germany, to fix a mandatory goal for renewables such as solar, wind and hydro-electric power to back Europe's ambition to lead the world in fighting climate change.

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Voters-want-more-spent-on-climate-threat/2007/03/06/1172943362427.html

An opinion poll of 10 mostly marginal federal seats has found voters want more money invested to protect natural habitats against the upheavals of climate change.

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Firms fund forestry to soak up Co2

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Firms-fund-forestry-to-soak-up-Co2/2007/05/28/1180205148600.html

Two global companies are getting dirt under their nails by creating forest plantations to soak up climate-warming carbon dioxide (Co2).

Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) and international banking giant Credit Suisse Group have teamed up to provide a $US200 million ($A242.9 million) carbon fund for forestry projects in Australia and across the globe.

SFM, which invests in sub-tropical and tropical tree plantations, said the Sustainable Carbon Finance fund would seek large-scale projects designed to bring climate stabilisation, protect biodiversity, as well as reduce deforestation.

"We are looking at reafforesting those portions of degraded agricultural land that once would have had a degree of tree cover."

The projects will look to provide returns to local and international investors and communities in the developing world, he said.

SFM owns more than 2,000 hectares of tree plantations in South Australia and is targeting up to 400,000 hectors of dryland rehabilitation in southern and western Australia, of which 20 per cent will be reafforested and is expected to capture one million tonnes of Co2 over the next 30 years.

"If the quality of carbon flows is deemed to be appropriate then in effect the project will be funded by the (fund) on a loan basis, but the difference is repaid - both principle and interest - over time by the issuance of carbon credits," Mr Bernstein said.

Both Credit Suisse and SMP said that the projects would pass through stringent assessment standards such as those put forward by the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA).

Thi is an association of NGO's and scientific bodies which has designed a series of standards to help shape land management projects.

However, there is still much debate and speculation about carbon sink projects, forest plantations designed to absorb carbon and offset harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Although the World Bank says deforestation contributes about 20 per cent to global CO2 emissions, a Sydney-based environment group has questioned the value of planting trees to offset emissions.

The Total Environment Centre (TEC) released a report last week looking into the pitfalls of the Australian carbon offset market and found that some programs are "greenwash".

"Carbon sequestration offsets or tree-plantings are plagued with difficulties," TEC director Jeff Angel said.

"Accounting for the carbon varies, then there is the lack of regulation, assurance and insurance to ensure that the offset will actually deliver what it says over the entire life of the tree, regardless of weather conditions or fire."

Even if one million hectors of trees were planted on Monday, less than five per cent of Australia's GHG emissions would be captured, the report said.

European non-governmental organisation FERN, said that besides the major uncertainties on the scientific side, carbon sinks had swayed attention away from the most important idea of cutting emissions.

"Carbon sinks have dominated the climate change agenda, diverting attention away from the inescapable need to dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions in industrialised countries," FERN said in a statement.

Amazing when you consider that a spoof site has actually generated around AU$400 000 (~ 65000 ppl x AU$6.25) for doing nothing

You can imagine what might happen when the financial markets get a hold of compulsory carbon trading

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Labor-concerned-by-green-shoe-brigade/2007/06/06/1181089135456.html

Federal Labor says concern about dodgy carbon offset programs will lead it to establish a national standard if elected.

Offset schemes allow consumers to reduce their carbon footprint by purchasing credits that can be used to fund greenhouse gas-absorbing projects like tree-planting.

But concern has arisen over whether such programs are genuine, illegitimately sold on, or achieve the desired result.

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Tree planting does not offset emissions

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Tree-planting-does-not-offset-emissions/2007/08/05/1186252531039.html

Tree planting schemes popularly used to offset carbon emissions do little to combat climate change, a think-tank says.

A paper by The Australia Institute released on Sunday accuses governments and businesses of exploiting such "fads" to avoid the need for real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

"By diverting people's funds and attention to projects that are unlikely to reduce emissions significantly in the long term, some offset schemes could ultimately do more harm than good," report author Christian Downie said.

"Tree planting is the most popular type of carbon offset promoted in Australia but it is, in fact, the least effective for dealing with climate change.

"The evidence indicates that offsets from renewable energy are the most effective, followed by those from energy efficiency projects, with forestry projects ranked last."

Mr Downie said Australia needed a compulsory accreditation scheme for carbon offset projects.

He said there were strong grounds for excluding forestry-based offsets from an emissions trading system in Australia or least restricting their use.

"Tree planting, or forestry, cannot secure real, measurable and permanent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions because sooner or later the forest will be felled, burned or destroyed," Mr Downie said.

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Qantas launches carbon offset program

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Qantas-launches-carbon-offset-program/2007/08/30/1188067269667.html

The pollution emitted by Qantas aircraft will be offset partly by a carbon credit program to be launched by the Flying Kangaroo in September.

Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti announced that consumers and businesses would be able to purchase carbon credits to offset their carbon dioxide emissions.

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Cleaner technologies cut emission: ABARE

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/cleaner-technologies-cut-emission-abare/2007/09/02/1188671778288.html

A new ABARE report says the widespread adoption of cleaner, more advanced and energy efficient technologies can greatly reduce the growth in greenhouse gas emissions in APEC economies.

ABARE, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, said investment in cleaner, more advanced and energy efficient technologies could reduce emissions in the APEC region by about 49 per cent relative to what would otherwise be the case at 2050.

The report also backs investment in forest carbon sinks to achieve further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

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Swapping valuable mangrove coastline for desert?

Qld gets environmental offset program

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Qld-gets-environmental-offset-program/2007/10/22/1192940976087.html

The Queensland government will launch its own environmental offset program to urge developers to replace the vegetation cleared for major projects.

Premier Anna Bligh on Monday unveiled a government-facilitated "land bank", called Green Invest, which would link people who have land with developers who were willing to invest in it.

Ms Bligh said some businesses were already attempting to become environmentally neutral, while others were required to offset their projects by law.

"It is impossible for a state like Queensland to go ahead and develop without some clearing of vegetation and land legally," she told reporters in Brisbane.

But she said the program, which would be running by mid-2008, would not mean areas currently out of bounds for developers would be able to be cleared.

"A simple example... if there was a need to do something on the coastline that had perhaps an impact on mangroves, there is the opportunity in an offset system to look to some area that has been degraded and rehabilitate it," he said.