Shrinking the Footprint - Offset your carbon emissions

Offset your carbon emissions

Offsetting carbon emissions is paying someone to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to match that which your activities generate, so as to make them "climate neutral". Projects include providing new sources of renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and restoring forests around the world. Offsetting is often mentioned with reference to reducing the impact of air travel (the fastest growing source of carbon emissions).

In modern life it is almost impossible to be completely carbon neutral - watching television, cooking food, even using a telephone, all directly or indirectly produce carbon emissions (in the UK half of the emissions we each produce is generated by industry rather than directly by our personal activity). Offsetting has a part to play in addressing this. However, it is a final step in the Shrinking the Footprint Path. This is because it is important first to reduce (or plan to reduce) carbon emissions as much as possible, before considering offsetting the remainder (or using it as a temporary measure whilst making those planned changes). Offsetting can supplement other efforts and provide short term means of reducing the impact of carbon emissions. By putting a price to the environmental impact of our activities it also helps build an appreciation of the scale of that impact. For example, it would cost £75 to offset an average UK resident’s emissions.

The two best-known carbon offsetting scheme providers are the Carbon Neutral Company and Climate Care.

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Offset your carbon emissions Offsetting carbon emissions is paying someone to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to match that which your activities generate, so as to make them "climate neutral". Projects include providing new sources of renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and restoring forests around the world. Offsetting is often mentioned with reference to reducing the impact of air travel (the fastest growing source of carbon emissions). In modern life it is almost impossible to be completely carbon neutral - watching television, cooking food, even using a telephone, all directly or indirectly produce carbon emissions (in the UK half of the emissions we each produce is generated by industry rather than directly by our personal activity). Offsetting has a part to play in addressing this. However, it is a final step in the Shrinking the Footprint Path. This is because it is important first to reduce (or plan to reduce) carbon emissions as much as possible, before considering offsetting the remainder (or using it as a temporary measure whilst making those planned changes). Offsetting can supplement other efforts and provide short term means of reducing the impact of carbon emissions. By putting a price to the environmental impact of our activities it also helps build an appreciation of the scale of that impact. For example, it would cost £75 to offset an average UK resident’s emissions. The two best-known carbon offsetting scheme providers are the Carbon Neutral Company and Climate Care.