About Carbon
What is carbon?
The term “Carbon” refers to Carbon Dioxide and also a number of other green house gasses such as methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorcarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. To keep it simple and for the purpose of measuring, these are converted into their CO2 equivalents, thus “Carbon” refers to all of the above gasses.
What is your carbon footprint?
Your carbon footprint is the measured effect your actions and lifestyle have on the environment. This includes every single thing you do that requires energy and water. Some of the biggest contributors are travel, electricity, diet, product choice and consumer habits. Your footprint is measured in metric tons of Carbon emitted.
Offsetting is a tool that allows people or companies to invest in projects that reduce carbon emissions. A carbon offset or credit is equal to a reduction of one ton of carbon emitted. Therefore a company that would like to be “carbon zero”, but cannot reduce its environmental impact completely, may buy carbon credits to reach this status.
Carbon Credits are generated through projects which are usually one of the following:
- Carbon sequestration projects (i.e. tree planting),
- Energy Efficient projects (i.e. changing to energy efficient globes, appliances etc.)
- Renewable energy projects (i.e. solar power, wind energy etc.)
What does carbon zero or carbon neutral mean?
The first step is to calculate your carbon footprint. You would then need to offset the exact amount of carbon emitted to neutralise your footprint. This can be done through investing in projects that sink carbon or stop carbon from being emitted. It is important to remember that you should always reduce first and only offset what cannot be viably reduced.
It is idealistic to believe we can go from our current situation to zero emissions without a bridge. That bridge is carbon offsetting. Although carbon offsetting alone will not solve global warming and its effect on climate change and our natural systems, it is a necessary part of carbon management. Since the planet does not care where we reduce our emissions, this allows for developed countries to fund projects in developing countries to offset their emissions. As with any new market, this system is open to corruption and it is important to invest in credible projects. It is also imperative that we all understand the importance of reducing our impact first and only offsetting what cannot viably be reduced.
CER (certified emission reduction)
Countries that are legally bound by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions can invest in CDM projects that generate CER’s. The executive board that governs the CDM has strict regulations to ensure that a CER issued in one country is equal to a CER issued in another country. The complex verification process makes these the most expensive and the most sort after credits.
VER (voluntary emission reduction)
Many companies wish to be carbon zero but are unable to reduce their emissions completely. These companies are not required by law to reduce emissions; they “voluntarily” buy VER’s to offset what cannot be reduced to reach carbon zero status. The regulations in the voluntary market are not as strict as with the CER’s. It is therefore important to ensure you purchase credits from a credible broker and that the project is real, verified and has additional benefits.
Earth Patrol holds a registry of every carbon credit we generate.
Each credit is numbered and you will receive the credit numbers allocated to you for your offset and this will then be updated on our website. This allows for complete transparency and to ensure the credits are not traded more than once.
It also allows you to see in which of our projects your offset has been generated.
