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KICK THE HABIT
THE CYCLE – OFFSET
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own emissions will eventually be more attractive. Maybe not immediately
but definitely sooner if we all participate.
The most desirable way of reducing emissions will in most cases be just
that – to reduce emissions. This should always be the first step: Reduce as
much as you can. But if you concede that the best is sometimes not a choice
at all, for financial or other good reasons, then: Offset the remainder.
What are the offsetting options?
The concept of paying for emissions cuts instead of making a reduction
yourself is originally linked to emissions trading. Project-based emissions
reductions generated under the official mechanism of the Kyoto protocol
are regulated by a strict formal and legal framework and primarily intended
to help countries to meet their emission targets. However, these emission
reductions can be bought and used by anyone to reduce their climate foot-
print. Emission reductions which comply with those criteria constitute the
compliance market. Although the compliance market makes up the biggest
chunk of emission reduction via offsets today, there is also the so-called
voluntary market where you can buy offsets that are not eligible under the
Kyoto protocol but not necessarily less efficient.
Internal activities which take place within an entity some claim as offsets.
For example company x or city y accounts a certain amount of trees they
have planted for emissions reduction on their climate balance. As with
many activities which have no firewall through external control, it is dif-
ficult to check if these activities are as effective as assumed.
Therefore, we will focus on official offsets – allowed under the Kyoto Proto-
col – and voluntary offsets. Both types can be easily purchased be individu-
als, organizations and countries.
Compliance market
Legally binding systems seek to persuade actors to reduce their green-
house gas emissions based on a simple idea: making people pay for pol-
luting will increase the cost of emissions and that will in turn reduce
the amount of emissions generated. On this note the Kyoto Protocol pro-
vides mechanisms that allow parties to reduce emissions outside their