The Biochar Blog

Archive for the ‘Carbon’ Category

“A carbon offset or (carbon credits) is assumed to be a financial instrument which shows greenhouse gases emission reduction and helps us to take personal responsibility for the environmental consequences of our activities.”

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas produced by human activities, primarily through the combustion of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal. As a result of tremendous world-wide consumption of such fossil fuels, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased over the past century which ultimately resulted in a global warming, the prime suspect in the greatest mass extinction of all time – wiping out 95% of all life forms on the planet.

We all are responsible to add CO2 and ultimately the global warming. Carbon footprint is a measure of the impact of our activities on the environment, and in particular on climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases we are producing in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating, transportation etc.

As the Global Warming issues are getting attention of the masses, people are seeking a perfect solution to handle the situation before it becomes too late.Carbon offsets are becoming an increasingly popular way for individuals and businesses to participate in solutions to global warming. Carbon offsets help us to balance out our carbon footprint easily and effectively in a more peaceful manner. Offsetting emissions is a process whereby an individual or organisation purchases carbon credits to neutralise its global warming impact. Each carbon credit represents the abatement or sequestration of one tonne of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases – or carbon emissions – from our atmosphere.

The basic idea behind carbon offsetting is that you pay to fund projects that neutralise CO2 emissions produced by you. You invest your contributions towards greenhouse gases reduction through projects which produce clean energy that replaces the energy production from fossil fuel. Wind farms project is a good example of such projects. Other types of offsets available for sale on the market include those resulting from energy efficiency projects, methane capture from landfills or livestock, destruction of potent greenhouse gases such as halocarbons, and carbon sequestration projects (through reforestation, or agriculture) that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Carbon credits allow us to become more “Carbon Neutral”. You may be doing everything that you possibly can to reduce your carbon footprint, but it still might not be enough. Despite your energy saving, recycling and green transportation efforts at home and at work, you still may feel like you are not adequately reducing your carbon footprint. In this situation you can consider buying carbon credits for the more promising results and peace of mind at the same time. When you purchase carbon credits you help lower your carbon footprint and you prevent global warming. Before you purchase your carbon credits always make sure that the organization you are supporting is legit and is truly helping the environment.

Carbon credits are becoming a key component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases. There are many benefits for a business to reduce their carbon footprint and become carbon neutral when skyrocketing energy costs eat into profits. A carbon credit is the best way to help individuals and companies reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by offsetting them in a more environmentally friendly way.

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What Is Carbon Monoxide?

CO Carbon Monoxide is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Fifteen hundred people die annually due to accidental carbon monoxide exposure, and additional 10,000 seek medical attention. (Medical experts agree that it’s difficult to estimate the total number of carbon monoxide incidents because the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning resemble so many other common ailments.)

Carbon monoxide is a flammable, colorless, odorless, tasteless toxic gas produced during incomplete combustion of fuel.

During normal combustion, each atom of carbon in the burning fuel joins with two atoms of oxygen – forming a harmless gas called carbon dioxide. When there is a lack of oxygen to ensure complete combustion of the fuel, each atom of carbon links up with only one atom of oxygen – forming carbon monoxide gas.

What Is The Danger?

Carbon monoxide inhibits the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen. In our lungs, CO quickly passes into our bloodstream and attaches itself to hemoglobin (oxygen carrying pigment in red blood cells). Hemoglobin readily accepts carbon monoxide – even over the life giving oxygen atoms (as much as 200 times as readily as oxygen) forming a toxic compound known as carboxyhemoglobin (COHb).

By replacing oxygen with carbon monoxide in our blood, our bodies poison themselves by cutting off the needed oxygen to our organs and cells, causing various amounts of damage – depending on exposure.

Low levels of carbon monoxide poisoning (with COHb levels of 10%) result in symptoms commonly mistaken for common flu and cold symptoms – shortness of breath on mild exertion, mild headaches, nausea.

With higher levels of poisoning (COHb levels of 30%) the symptoms become more severe – dizziness, mental confusion, severe headaches, nausea, fainting on mild exertion.

At high levels (CHOb of 50% or more), there may be unconsciousness and death.

How Does CO Enter The Home?

Carbon monoxide can escape from any fuel-burning appliance, furnace, water heater, fireplace, woodstove, or space heater.

Any of these things can be very dangerous:

A faulty furnace, maybe from mechanical failure
A clogged fireplace from a bird’s nest resting on top
Water heaters, perhaps damaged in a flood
A gas stove in your kitchen
A faulty space heater
A gas dryer that’s not properly installed
A grill used inside a garage during winter
A car in the garage

Most newer homes are built very air-tight, thus cutting down on the supply of fresh air to your furnace – and creating an oxygen starved flame. Tight closing replacement windows and doors, as well as additional insulation can cause similar problems in older homes.

Carbon monoxide can spill from vent connections in poorly maintained or blocked chimneys. If the flue liner is cracked or deteriorated, CO can seep through the liner and into the house – slowly creeping up to dangerous levels. If a nest or other materials restrict or block the flue, CO will mostly spill back into the house.

Improperly sized flues connected to new high-efficiency furnaces and water heaters can also contribute to CO spillage. (Many new furnaces and water heaters are installed using the existing chimneys which may be the wrong size to allow the furnace to vent properly.)

Warming up vehicles in an attached garage, even with the garage door opened, can allow concentrated amounts of CO to enter your home through the car port door or near-by windows. Wind can also blow fumes back into the garage, and temperature differences between the indoors and outside can move CO back into your house or garage.

What To Do In A CO emergency

If you are suffering from chronic flu-like symptoms, see your doctor and ask her if it could be a low-level CO poisoning.

If you have a CO detector, and it alarms, open windows and ventilate your home with fresh air, have your heating system checked by a professional.

If your alarm sounds and you are feeling drowsy or dizzy, leave the house and call 911 from your neighbors’ home. You may need medical attention for CO poisoning.

Home inspection can help

Having your home inspected each year at the beginning of the heating season can help avoid deadly carbon monoxide gas from leaking into your home, according to Chairman Ann Brown of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

CO poisoning from the use of fuel burning appliances kills at least 200 people each year and sends more than 5,000 to hospital emergency rooms for treatment. Consumers can avoid this by having their fuel-burning appliances inspected by a qualified technician each year, and by purchasing and installing CO detectors.

Modern heating equipment is sophisticated and requires special training and tools for proper maintenance; consumers should not service their own appliances, but instead have a qualified professional perform an inspection.

A yearly inspection of your home by a professional should include a careful look at the following sources of carbon monoxide:

Furnaces, hot water heaters and stoves. If they burn natural gas, heating oil, wood or other kinds of fuel, these appliances are potential sources of CO.
Chimneys, flues and vents. Have flues and chimneys inspected before each heating season for leakage and for blockage by creosote or debris. Creosote buildup or leakage could cause black stains on the outside of the chimney or flue. These stains can mean that pollutants are leaking into the house. Have all vents to furnaces, water heaters or boilers checked to make sure they are not loose or disconnected.
High Temperature Plastic Venting (HTPV) pipes, which are used in mid-efficiency appliances, may separate or crack. This could allow CO from the furnace to enter a home. Homeowners with a gas-fired mid-efficiency furnace or boiler installed between 1987 and 1993 should have them inspected for cracking or separating.
Improper ventilation. Make sure that your appliances have adequate ventilation. A supply of fresh air is important to help carry pollutants up the chimney, stovepipe or flue, and is necessary for the complete combustion of any fuel.
Finally, consumers should be aware that charcoal grills can also be a potential source of CO. Never use charcoal grills in enclosed spaces such as a home, garage, vehicle or tent, and never bring grills with live coals indoors after use. Never use charcoal grills as an indoor heat source.

Carbon monoxide is a deadly threat, but it can be avoided by having a yearly professional inspection of your home fuel burning appliances and by installing a CO detector that meets the most recent UL standards.

Carbon Monoxide Alarms

If you wish to purchase a Carbon Monoxide Alarm or Detector then visit http://www.co-awareness.com

Products include – Honeywell Carbon Monoxide Detectors and Aico Carbon Monoxide Alarms

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A carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, event, organization or product. Carbon accounting (also called GHG accounting) does assess the carbon footprint to help organizations adopt strategies aimed at fighting climate change. As with financial accounting and reporting, generally accepted carbon accounting principles are intended to underpin and guide carbon accounting and reporting to ensure that the reported information represents a faithful, true, and fair account of a company’s carbon emissions.

Business community in India has started seeing value in undertaking carbon accounting and reporting it in public forums. Such forums include Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and company’s Sustainable Development Reports. The number of companies which responded the CDP’s information request on climate change strategy, risk and opportunities assessment and carbon accounting was answered by 37 companies in 2007. The number increased to 51 in 2008 and dropped marginally to 44 in 2009, partially explained by the global financial crisis.

There is still long way to go for Indian businesses on the path of carbon accounting and disclosures. Even in the top 200 firms in India (by market capitalization), the response rate in last few years has steadily increased and reached 20%, a rather dismal performance compared to developed markets.

There are a few sectors like the software and services which are clear leaders in being carbon-aware, accounting carbon emissions from their emissions, taking efforts in reducing it and communicating it to the stakeholders. Part of this can be explained given the fact that these companies are most export dependent and draw majority of their clientele and revenues from markets of US and EU. Clear laggards in efforts in this direction are companies in the field of banking & diversified financials, capital goods, real estate and retail. Very few companies in these sectors have responded to the CDP information request and have accounted for their carbon emissions. Part of the lack of drive can be explained by significant domestic base, relative inelasticity of demand to seemingly peripheral factors and relative less thought given to corporate social responsibility.

In the following discussion, we summarize the key issues that would become increasing relevant to Indian organizations and drive thorough and wide spread carbon accounting, reduction and disclosure efforts.

Upcoming regulations

Industries such as steel and textiles could soon face a carbon entry barrier, one way or the other, while exporting goods to markets where the country has enacted regulations stipulating guidelines for the domestic industry. The domestic industry, to maintain its competitiveness would ensure that less efficient (and therefore more carbon intensive) products entering into the economy pay for the difference in carbon levels by ‘carbon tax’ or equivalent.

Though these regulations may take some time to be widely implemented, it makes business sense for companies in select sectors to be prepared with a clear understanding of where they stand with respect to competition from developed countries and other developing countries such as China, Brazil or Vietnam.

Developing countries such as India, Brazil, China and South Africa (BASIC) are facing increasing pressure from the developed world to monitor and report their GHG emissions. This is due to the fact that the growth in GHG emissions worldwide in foreseeable future will come from these economies, thanks to their contribution to world economy and increasingly so. In order to make sure that the developed countries continue to finance emission reduction projects, energy efficiency and other technology development, the BASIC countries may have to undertake monitoring, reporting and verification of their national GHG inventories. When such an mechanism becomes a part of internationally negotiated agreement, carbon accounting and reporting would become statutory requirement like the annual financial reporting and auditing.

Investor requirements

Having realized the crucial importance of good disclosure and corporate governance practices, investors across the globe are demanding companies to disclose their climate change strategies, perceived risks and opportunities created by climate change, contribution to climate change and efforts taken to minimize corporate carbon footprint. To reduce the transaction costs of responding to individual investors in unique format and vice-versa, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has been created as a not-for-profit non-governmental organization. Active since 2006, in 2010 CDP sent out information request to more than 3500 organizations across sectors and scales around the globe. In India, the information is sought from top 200 companies by market capitalization. The responses from companies in relation to their climate change strategies, perceived risks and opportunities and carbon footprint of their operations will be analyzed, compiled in a report and sent to more than 530 investors across globe. Investors also become aware if the organization chooses not to respond to such an information request or decline to participate. The list of investors who get seek such information from corporations through CDP includes Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Asset Management among others.

Such investor-facing communication should be taken seriously taken by companies and pursued pro-actively even if organization does not receive information request.

Basis for Energy efficiency

Carbon emission is a direct indicator of the energy consumption in a process or an activity. By mapping carbon footprint in detail, an organization can identify ‘emission hotspots’, the energy intensive processes and take actions to reduce the carbon footprint/energy consumption per unit product/service produced/delivered. This can directly lead to cost savings and thus addition to bottom-line, the ultimate test for evaluating success or failure of an activity/intervention.

Impact the national policy

Though the carbon accounting and disclosure efforts of an individual company may not have a direct bearing on the climate policy decisions taken by the Indian government, a wide participation by India Inc. in activities in the area of carbon accounting, emission reductions and reporting can send a strong signal that Indian industry is proactively engaging in the climate change dialogue and response process. Such activities will contribute towards political process through analysis and reporting. For example – the release of CDP India 2009 report coincided with landmark session in parliament where the environmental Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh announced that India will reduce its carbon intensity levels by 20-25% on its 2005 over the next 11 years. The Economic Times carried an article quoting the CDP India report and saying that India Inc. is well positioned to achieve the 20-25% emission intensity reduction targets given that companies are already voluntarily disclosing their carbon footprints and undertaking measures to reduce them.

It is evident that voluntary initiatives such as the CDP or company’s sustainability reports highlighting their carbon emissions, reduction measures and targets are influencing policy decisions and in future will play a significant role in India’s climate change strategy and policy.

________________________

EcoLogic Consultancy is a focused Carbon Management consulting firm. We provide services in the wide spectrum of carbon management, helping our clients identify the risks and opportunities in climate change, mitigate the risks, exploit the opportunities, and thus tackle the environmental challenge.

For further details, reach us at

enquiry@ecologicconsultancy.in

www.ecologicconsultancy.in

Indrajeet – +91-90287 88430

Kedar – +91-90007 72462

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Some people have asked me what evidence there is to support the claim by CO2 Tropical Trees that the average tropical tree will sequester 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon per year.  First off, let me stress that this is affected by location, soil type, rainfall and species. Having said that, most tropical trees located within 15 degrees northern and southern latitude of the equator do indeed sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, something that is supported by numerous studies and ongoing research. In this article I will offer some calculations in support of the efficiency of tropical plantation trees as a method of carbon sequestration. I will base my calculations on industry standard hectares (an area measuring 100 meters by 100 meters, or 2.47 acres) with 1,250 trees planted per hectare, later culled back to 600 trees per hectare. 

In an article entitled “Carbon sequestration in tropical agroforestry systems” by Alain Albrecht and Serigne T. Kandji, both of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, they found that the carbon sequestration potential of tropical agroforestry systems produced a median sequestration value of 95 metric tons (104 US tons) per hectare per year. Taking into account the variables of location, soil type, rainfall and species it can be as high as 228 metric tons (251 US tons) per hectare. Assuming a median of 95,000 kg divided by 1,250 trees per hectare one would get 76 kg (167 lbs) per tree. In a managed plantation trees are often culled back to about 600 trees per hectare, which would result in 158 kg (348 lbs) per tree per year. These numbers support the cubic meter increase of woody biomass observed in growing locations with excellent conditions, which I will address later. Please note that managed plantations generally produce 20 to 30 times more wood than do natural forests, resulting in higher carbon sequestration rates per hectare.

Studies cited in Science Daily show that natural African tropical forests absorb about 600 kg (1,323 lbs) of carbon per hectare per year. If you take 600 kg by 25 times more wood per hectare in a plantation setting, you get 15,000 kg (33,000 lbs) per hectare per year divided by 600 plantation trees per hectare, which results in 25 kg (55 lbs) of carbon sequestered per tree per year. I should also mention that one of the species CO2 Tropical Trees plants is Acacia mangium, a recognized nitrogen fixing tree (NFT). Studies like “Greater Soil Carbon Sequestration under Nitrogen-fixing Trees Compared with Eucalyptus Species” published by Ecosystems, a Springer publication, show that NFT’s sequester more carbon in the soil than do other types of tropical trees.

One problem in the literature is the vastly varying time-lines on which research has been based. The CO2 Tropical Trees program relies on a 10 year cycle from seed to mature tree for all of their calculations. This fact further enhances their credibility on the issue, because in the study “Carbon sequestration through afforestation: Role of tropical industrial plantations“, their methodology of using a 10 year cycle to maximize woody biomass growth and carbon sequestration is supported. The article also confirms that once tropical trees reach maturity their effectiveness for carbon sequestration purposes declines. That means that using a 10 year cycle maximizes the carbon sequestration efficiency of their tropical tree plantations, with every cycle ending in harvest and followed by re-planting.

Let me cite some additional studies and methodologies. A Dutch study entitled “Estimation of Tropical Forest Biomass for assessment of Carbon Sequestration using regression models in remote sensing in Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia” by Irvin K. Samalca, Alfred de Gier and Yousif Ali Hussin, of the Department of Natural Resources at The International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation, confirms and shows that 50% plus of a tropical tree’s woody biomass is carbon. That means that fast growing tropical trees like those planted by CO2 Tropical Trees, which reach maturity in just 10 years time, are excellent carbon storage vessels.

Let’s calculate this from a different perspective. We know from several studies that the woody biomass of a tropical tree plantation can increase by at least 35 cubic meters plus (14,382 board feet) per hectare per year. Depending on the hardwood species, one cubic meter (424 board feet) of tropical hard wood can weigh from 600 kg to 1,200 kg (1,322 lbs to 2,645 lbs). Assuming 1 hectare of trees with a gain of 35 cubic meters of wood times a conservative average of 750 kg (1,653 lbs) per cubic meter, and you get 26,250 kg (57,871 lbs) per hectare per year. If at least half of that woody biomass is carbon, then one gets 13,125 kg (28,935 lbs) of carbon. Divide 13,125 kg of carbon by an average of 600 mature plantation trees (after culls) and one gets 22.6 kg (50 lbs) per tree, the number used by CO2 Tropical Trees. There is atable on wood weight in my free download Acacia mangium e-book, as well as a useful table regarding the weight of cubic meters of wood at the Computer Support Group’s web site.

Why do I say conservative? There is ample scientific support for much higher carbon sequestration rates by tropical trees. For example, Reforest the Tropics is an applied research program in Costa Rica demonstrating climate change mitigation through sustainable farm forestry. Using a 40 year base line they suggest that a natural tropical forest can sequester between 100 US tons to 160 US tons of carbon per acre (90.7 metric tons to 145 metric tons). This translates into 224 metric tons to 356 metric tons per hectare stored in a natural tropical forest over 40 years. Their research also suggests that a managed plantation of tropical trees will store as much as 800 US tons of CO2 per acre (725 metric tons). That translates into 1,792 metric tons per hectare. If one were to take 1,792,000 kg and divide by 40 years and then divide again by 1,250 tropical trees planted per hectare one would get 35.85 kg (79 lbs) per tree per year.

CO2 Tropical Trees is actually relying on the most conservative estimates of carbon sequestration for its carbon neutral program. They are not alone in relying on those numbers. For example, Carbonify.com has a carbon calculator that is based on 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon per tropical tree per year. Another typical example is the article published by James Post, citing a 2005 study published in Wikipedia that uses 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon sequestration per tropical tree per year for the purpose of calculating carbon offsets. In conclusion all I can say is that every time someone funds the planting of a tropical tree with CO2 Tropical Trees, the very least they can expect from that tree is 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon sequestered per year from our atmosphere. Given these facts and numbers people and institutions really don’t have any more excuses for not funding tree planting as an obvious partial solution to climate change.

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Carbon credits are a financial instrument that is part of national and international attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One carbon credit is equal to one ton of destroyed greenhouse gasses. These credits are generated by projects that either absorb carbon or otherwise reduce emissions through clean energy. Many individuals are now taking an interest in their carbon footprints, trying to lower their usage, as well as trying different ways to offset their carbon usage.

Carbon credits are part of an approach to emissions trading. With a certain amount of greenhouse gas allotted to markets, each individual group is given the opportunity to decide how much of a limited amount can be designated to each area. This allows industries to control the amount of greenhouse gasses they are using. This also allows industrial and commercial processes to market in the direction of lower emissions, or approaches that are used to not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This helps to finance carbon reduction schemes.

Carbon credits are in two different markets, the large compliance market and the smaller voluntary market. Corporations and industries participate in the compliance market where they purchase carbon offsets to comply with caps on carbon dioxide emissions. In 2006, about .5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market. This represents about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions.

Many companies sell carbon credits. Carbon credits are purchased from investment funds or carbon development companies. Many of these companies have saved these credits from other individual products, and offset themselves and the buyers by selling them. The quality of the credits is based on the validation process, the type of fund, and the development company. The price is also affected by these things. Voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism.

There are common features to carbon offsets: vintage, source, and certification regime. Vintage refers to the year in which the carbon reduction takes place, while the source refers to the project or technology used in offsetting the carbon emissions. The certification regime describes the rules and regulations that are in correlation to the carbon offsets.

In the smaller, voluntary market, individuals, companies, and others purchase carbon offsets because of their own determination to lower greenhouse emissions. The emissions they focus on lowering are most often transportation and electricity usage. In 2006, about million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, representing about 24 million metric tons of CO2e reductions.

There are two distinct types of carbon credits: carbon offset credits (COCs) and carbon reduction credits (CRCs). Carbon offset credits consist of clean forms of energy production, wind, solar, hydro and biofuels. Carbon reduction credits consist of the collection and storage of carbon from the earth’s atmosphere through reforestation, forestation, ocean and soil collection and storage efforts. Both ways are valid and positively recognized, each used in different situations.

Carbon credits initially came into existence as an attempt to inform and create awareness of the need to control emissions. Since then, it has been proven that the concept of carbon credits can be highly successful. This tradable system is one of the policy instruments that are very effective. As long as prices are maintained it should continue to be positive.

Along with positive ideas come those scammers who are out to make a buck. Even though trading in carbon credits is still in its infancy, there are those who are already taking advantage of what may be a very beneficial environmental program. To first understand how to avoid being taken advantage of, it is important to understand exactly what carbon credits are.

Carbon credits are part of national and international attempts to stop the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. One carbon credit is equal to one ton of carbon. Many individuals are now taking an interest in their carbon footprints, trying to lower their usage, as well as trying different ways to offset their usage. Carbon credits are part of an approach to emissions trading. With a certain amount of greenhouse gas allotted to markets, each individual group is given the opportunity to decide how much of a limited amount can be designated to each area. This allows for industries to control the amount of greenhouse gases they are using. This also allows industrial and commercial processes to market in the direction of lower emissions, or utilize approaches that are designed to not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This helps to finance carbon reduction schemes.

Many companies sell carbon credits. These carbon credits are sold to companies who voluntarily desire to lower their carbon footprint. Carbon credits are purchased from investment funds or carbon development companies. Many of these companies have saved these credits from other individual products and offset themselves and the buyers by selling them. The quality of the credits is based on the validation process, the type of fund, and the development company. The price is also affected by these things. Voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism.

There are two distinct types of Carbon Credits: Carbon Offset Credits (COCs) and Carbon Reduction Credits (CRCs). Carbon Offset Credits consist of clean forms of energy production, wind, solar, hydro and biofuels. Carbon Reduction Credits consists of the collection and storage of Carbon from the earth’s atmosphere through reforestation, forestation, ocean and soil collection and storage efforts. Both ways are valid and positively recognized, each used in different situations.

Whether or not you decide that the use of carbon credits are for you, it is important to know how to avoid being scammed.

• First and foremost, do your research on the company you are thinking of buying credit from. It is necessary to see if the industrial companies are actually implementing reductions in carbon use and greenhouse emissions or if they are really doing very little.

• They need to have verification. A shortage of verification makes it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits. Reliable third party verification is critical.

• Be careful of companies or individuals that are over-pricing their carbon credits. Why are their credits more expensive? What is their value? Have their prices increased or decreased due to changes in their emissions reductions?

Do the research before purchasing carbon credits. It is important to find if the organization has any history of selling worthless credits which do not yield reductions. There is no point in purchasing carbon credits if they do not benefit you or the environment.

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One of the fastest growing fields of investment these days is green investing. Since everyone is always looking for the next big thing this article will focus on what I think is going to be one of the best investment opportunities to look at in a long time: carbon offset credits.

It can be very confusing and certainly requires a good deal of time to sift through the various information that you can readily collect on the internet in regard to carbon offset investments. Do you have either the time or desire to do this? The question to one or both of these questions is probably no. But if you don’t do research, like you would with any other investment, then you’re taking a gamble. So what do you do? Let’s take a quick look at what the whole field is about.

What are carbon credits? That takes a bit of explaining but we’ll make it brief. Carbon credits are what many companies throughout the world are buying to offset their own carbon emissions. These are companies that are in countries that signed the Kyoto protocol a number of years ago. Countries that did not sign the protocol include the U.S., China and India although the Obama administration does want to require U.S. companies to abide by the protocol’s requirements soon. For now, in the U.S. there are voluntary requirements.

A unit of carbon credit is basically a unit of some type of project that consumes one ton of carbon dioxide most typically, although there are other greenhouse gases which are included, and in doing so creates oxygen. The most common way that this happens in nature is when plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and expel oxygen. So nature does this on its own and there are also a number of ways that man has devised to offset carbon admissions as well.

So what is a simple example of utilizing a carbon credit? You can buy the rights to the oxygen that is emitted by a certain amount of land in a rainforest and use this credit to offset the carbon that your company or even your household is emitting. There are simple ways to calculate the amount of carbon you or your company are responsible for emitting each year and once you calculate the amount you then know how much you have to purchase in the way of carbon credits to make your “carbon footprint” neutral.

How does all this work? This is quite easy, actually. There are many organizations, private and government, that have created many projects around the world that sustain rain forests and other natural areas that create oxygen and consume carbon dioxide. For the most part these projects are regulated by a number of organizations including the World Bank and various carbon exchanges. Do not deal with any project that is not regulated and/or endorsed by a respected international organization.

So all you have to do is purchase carbon credits from a regulated and approved project and your company or household can then become carbon neutral. You have paid to help control global warming and the general welfare of the planet on a very basic level. In many countries this is mandatory but in the countries mentioned above it is not. Still, even in these countries, many individuals and companies are purchasing carbon credits – companies, to proclaim their commitment to helping the environment, among other things, and individuals out of a sense of responsibility to help the environment. What is in the process of being created, therefore, is a huge market for carbon credit purchasing and trading.

And if there is a trading market there is a way to make money. Ever heard of “buy low, sell high.” In the second part of this article we’ll talk more specifically about why this market is taking off and who some of the major players are.

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You can achieve effective carbon management when you use carbon software to do the job.  Carbon software will allow you to actually keep track of your carbon emissions and regulate them, through the use of the carbon software, so that you have effective carbon management.  This is necessary for companies that need to comply with federal, state and local laws and regulations. 

There is an increasing amount of outcry coming from consumer and advocate groups when it comes to carbon management from companies.  Larger companies know that they have to be compliant when it comes to their carbon management and take steps towards doing this, often using carbon software that will generate reports as well as signal when the company is using too much energy in one or more particular area.  This type of carbon management also measures the amount of emissions that are generated by the use of energy.  Everyone knows that energy use of all kinds emits carbon footprints.  In order to generate less carbon footprints that are harmful to the environment as well as quell the carbon emissions, it is necessary for companies to practice good carbon management. 

Even smaller companies can benefit from the use of carbon software.  Carbon software can be used for a variety of different companies to help them measure the emissions that they are generating.  These can come from any type of energy source, including computer servers.  As the laws are becoming more strict when it comes to carbon management, an increasing number of companies are seeking ways to reduce their emissions.  They can do this when they use effective carbon software that will give them accurate reports on emissions as well as be able to generate reports so that they can make sure that they stay in compliance.  Any company that is interested in carbon management can use carbon software for this purpose.  

The carbon software is easy to use and will pretty much run itself once you install it.  It will be able to tell you the amount of carbon emissions you are generating as well as give you insight as to how you can reduce these emissions in certain sectors of your company.  This can make a great deal of difference not only to your company, but to the environment as well.  If your company has pledged to go green, then you need to use carbon software in order to help you attain that goal. 

In order to avoid being out of compliance with legislation as well as to better the environment, a company today needs to practice carbon management.  Using a reliable and easy to use carbon software is the best way to approach this problem and solve any excessive emissions that are being generated from your company.  If you are looking for carbon software, you can find various types that will help your company stay compliant with all laws as well as become greener and cleaner.  Your company can practice carbon management easily and effectively when using a reliable and up to date carbon software product. 

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