Palm | Kelapa Sawit

After looking into Live Earth and it's supposed enviro-friendly business model and reading about a number of artists claiming that they purchased carbon credits in order to offset the carbon production based on their travel, I decided to look further into the carbon credit system to understand how exactly it works. Fact of the matter is that carbon credits do just about nothing to help the Earth. Carbon credits should be considered more of a canceling out of pollution. Consider the following: I release 1 units worth of carbon into the environment, and at the same time pay someone to reduce their own carbon release, by 1 unit, therefore cancelling out (ideally) the unit I released. So in effect, purchasing carbon credits don't do anything positive for the environment, rather it remains neutral. Additionally, the problem is that purchasing carbon credits is based on the assumption that the individual selling and managing carbon credits will in fact release a fixed rate of carbon units into the environment.
Problems have also occurred with carbon credits and fraud. In fact the World Bank has been accused of carbon credit fraud, detailed thouroughly in this article at the Interpress News Agency. Perhaps the most important resource for adequate carbon credit information in the United States is the Chicago Climate Exchange, a company that "is the world’s first and North America’s only active voluntary, legally binding integrated trading system to reduce emissions of all six major greenhouse gases (GHGs), with offset projects worldwide. --Source (Overview CCX)."
Links
Interpress News Article: World Bank "Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis"
Chicago Climate Exchange

posted by Jeff Hammond

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