Offsetting personal carbon emissions: how and why?
“Bringing emissions down to zero before the end of the 21st century is paramount if we want to stay below 2 degrees of global warming. The challenge is daunting and seems almost impossible to achieve. what can we do to reach this goal?”
Fast tracking to a carbon-neutral world receives a lot of media coverage, but so do the news of newly-built coal fired power stations in India and China, as well as the burning of rainforests in Brazil and Indonesia. Why should I care? Aren’t these issues the responsibility of governments and businesses? They are for a large part, but our lifestyle choices are also to be taken into account. In a context of emission reduction emergency, it is likely that citizens will be given a specific carbon allowance in a near future, with taxes and credits geared towards reducing personal consumption.
So why not start now?
For those like me coming from or living in the Northern Hemisphere, we must face the the fact that a large part of carbon emissions stem from our consumption of foreign products and our energy “needs”, from housing to transport. Current per-capita global emissions are around 4.35 tonnes per person per year, but in the UK they are 5.6 tonnes. If global warming is to be limited to 1.5C, children born in 2017 have a lifetime allowance of 43 tonnes of C02 – only 9 years at the current emission levels!
Younger generations are becoming acutely aware of the problem – a friend was telling me how last summer, an 18-year-old declined her two-week job offer abroad as he had exceeded his yearly travel emissions for the year and could not consider taking the plane anymore. This one example illustrates the rising awareness of “generation Greta” and we will most likely see more of this citizenship behaviour amongst generation Z.
Calculating the amount of CO2 (or greenhouse gases emissions) we emit is at the heart of the solutions to reduce carbon emissions. It is necessarily imperfect and relies on a series of unrealistic assumptions, nevertheless it does offer an idea of scale – it did for me and here is why I think I can make a difference:
The inconvenient truth
The per capita CO2 emission in the UK is around 5.65 tonnes per year but a return plane trip from London to San Francisco already produces around 2.6 tonnes of CO2. Already, that represents nearly 50% of my carbon consumption. In comparison, a person travelling each day by car for 30 kms will emit less in a year with around 2 tonnes of CO2.
Plane emissions are massive: when flying, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, soot, sulphur particles and water vapour from aircraft engines affect the climate at various duration and intensity levels. I can reduce my air travel habits for sure… but still – who can realistically advocate for a ban on travelling? It is reasonable to aim to compensate one’s emissions if one considers they cannot be avoided or reduced for now. Biofuel or zero-emissions planes are far from foreseeable. One could consider going to New York by sailing boat like Greta Thunberg, but who can spare two weeks?
The Guardian. IEA, Lee (2019) based on Fleming and Ziegler (2016)
Can I set my carbon price?
Today, 80% of carbon has no price. The Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition – an intergovernmental and private group launched at COP21 — is working on it. For now, they have calculated that a price between 35 and 65 euros per tonne of Co2 in 2020, and between 40 and 80 euros in 2030, will help achieve the Paris agreement. The range is quite wide.
Several states have already implemented pricing and trading schemes. At the European level, the European Energy exchange, the marketplace to trade electric power, sets the current price of emission allowances around 27 euros. Several big businesses have assigned their own internal price to carbon use which they factor into their investment decisions. They all have different measurement methods and thus various prices per tonne of CO2.
The most important aspect of a calculation method is whether the money spent offsetting goes to a climate protection project that does not create other detrimental consequences to the environment. Atmosfair, a German NGO which offers to offset CO2 emissions, has set a price of 23 euros per tonne of CO2. Why 23 euros? They consider that in order to install 50 solar panels on roofs in South Africa to heat water, a 23,000 € investment is required. As a result, within 10 years, 40,000 litres of diesel will be saved yearly, which means the climate will be “saved of” 1,000 tonnes of CO2. Hence, 23 euros saves 1 tonne of CO2.
For those who would prefer the airlines to do the offsetting for them – as many airlines are now committing to doing on their flights — think of generation Z. We are urging businesses to act responsibly, but shouldn’t change start with each single one of us?
by Manuela Fremy
Want to accelerate change?
Why not calculate your carbon footprint and donate to the Walk The Talk environment project fund.
Your donation is eligible for tax relief. You can then assign funds to the climate protection project of your choice.
Calculate your carbon footprint below
2. Donate to Walk the Talk environment giving fund the amount you would like to offset
3. Allocate your donation to the climate protection project that inspires you
Want to add your voice to carbon pricing? Tell the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition how carbon should be priced here.