The Biochar Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Carbon Emissions’

“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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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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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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Creating real carbon credits comes from the concept of supplementarity within the Kyoto Protocol. Supplementarity means that internal abatement of emissions should take precedence before a country purchases carbon credits. It establishes that countries should develop real, measureable, permanent emissions reductions. There are steps involved in deciding whether or not carbon credits are legitimate. This means making sure that the process through which the carbon credits are submitted are in fact real, measurable, and permanent emissions.

Creating real carbon credits involves the concept of additionality. This refers to a term used by Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism, describing the fact that a carbon dioxide reduction project would not have occurred had it not been for concern for the mitigation of climate change. By proving additionality, it proves the legitimacy of the environmental stewardship claim resulting from the retirement of the carbon credit.

Involved with real carbon credits is personal carbon trading. Personal carbon trading has not yet been approved, but may very well help lower carbon usage as well as create small, localized economies. Personal carbon trading is a concept that is along the same lines as carbon offset credits. The concept of carbon trading refers to emissions trading.

It is hoped that personal carbon trading will help lower the amount of emissions by allotting a certain amount of emissions to individuals on an equal per capita basis. The number would be based on national carbon budgets. The credits would be surrendered later when buying fuel or electricity. Any individual who needs or wants more carbon credits would need to trade or purchase additional credits. Not only does this allow for people to get additional credits, it also makes it possible for those who do not need all of their credits, or are voluntarily lowering their carbon emissions, to sell surplus credits. Individual trading under Personal Carbon Trading is similar to the trading companies under the European Union Emission Trading System.

Personal carbon trading is not the same as carbon offsetting. They are very similar in the sense that they pay for emissions allowances, but carbon trading differs in that it is designed to be mandatory so nations are guaranteed domestic carbon emissions targets. There are various carbon proposals. Included are Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs), Personal Carbon Allowances (PCAs), and Tradable Personal Pollution Allowances.

Depending on the personal carbon trading that is chosen, individuals would most likely use electric accounts to control the carbon credits. The account would allow individuals to surrender credits when purchasing electricity, heating fuel, and petroleum. Personal Carbon credits would also be used for public transportation. Those who sell their extra credit would benefit by lowering their carbon footprint, which is of course, the entire point of personal carbon credits.

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Star Energy Audits is the leading energy audit and Solutions Company in the state of Louisiana. Our mission is clear and simple. We help save homeowners money from rising energy costs. Our Energy Audits can help transform a wasteful, unhealthy, and uncomfortable home into an energy-efficient, more rigorously fortified, and tightly controlled dwelling while simultaneously lowering your home’s carbon emissions and making it a cleaner, healthier domicile over all.

Star Energy Audits is in a prime position to offer extensive rebates and discounts on energy-efficiency solutions as it has been working in concert with local utility companies and remaining active participants in various state energy-efficiency programs. These all help our clients get on the path to energy efficiency as quickly and affordably as possible. Our offers vary throughout the year, but can range anywhere from as low as 25% to as high as 70%. In fact, our solutions often end up being completely free, or at least extremely affordable after combining all the federal and state tax credits you qualify for.

As an 100% local company through and through, and have been actively involved in the energy efficiency and insulation industry for years in New Orleans and other surrounding areas in Louisiana.

We are proud members of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Our Home-Energy Experts and solution installation technicians are extensively trained and certified to perform energy audits. A Star Energy Audit is a diagnostic analysis of your home’s energy efficiency. Generally, an home audit consumes 3 to 4 hours to complete for most homes. Our solutions are simple, inexpensive and implemented by our own in-house technicians, nationwide.

We guarantee that you will save upto 20% to 45% on your energy bills no matter, whether you live in a new build home or multi-million dollar mansion. Star Energy Audits is popular for offering cutting-edge energy solutions that drastically reduce energy bills for our clients.

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The new era of Emissions Awareness
The world’s leading scientists continue to stress the evidence supporting climate change grows stronger with new research.

Everyday, more people and businesses are becoming aware of the impact of the carbon emissions caused by their everyday activities on the environment. Some people are aware and doing something about it. But a lot of people think doing a little bit is enough. The truth is if you do a little you achieve a little. We need to make deep cuts in carbon emissions and help drive investment in low-carbon solutions.

But what can you do? An increasingly popular option is to offset carbon and become carbon neutral.

Offset Carbon and be Carbon Neutral
To carbon offset is to reduce or stop carbon emissions somewhere else in the world for some of the carbon emissions you are responsible in your daily life. If you offset carbon emissions equivalent to the carbon emissions of all your activities in one year, then you are carbon neutral.

You use a carbon credit to offset carbon emissions. A carbon credit generally represents one tonne of carbon emissions reduced in a carbon project somewhere else in the world.

However, there has been some concerns about the calibre of carbon credits available to offset carbon emissions.

Most carbon offset projects use carbon credits created from trees or renewable projects. While these sound attractive there are concerns about using them as carbon offsets. A third type of carbon credit, a carbon emissions credit from a compliance regulated scheme, overcomes these concerns and empowers you to proactively reduce global carbon emission credits. These alternatives are investigated in the article “What are the alternatives to carbon offset / become carbon neutral”.

A More Meaningful Solution – Carbon Emission Credits
Carbon emission credits work like this. Through a simple and powerful initiative, you access a compliance regulated market to buy and cancel carbon emission credits. Cancelling carbon emissions credits from the limited pool of credits in the European Emissions Trading Scheme means there are fewer credits available to be used by industry to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. You are taking away the rights of industry to emit carbon dioxide.

Fewer carbon emission credits helps drive investment in low-carbon solutions such as energy efficiencies and renewable energy, as emitters can use the money from the carbon credits they sell to fund their investments in low-carbon solutions. They are rewarded for emitting less carbon dioxide.

Carbon emission credits have been referred to as the ‘most pure’ form of carbon emission reduction. We call it the Climakind alternative to offset carbon emissions because it helps ensure your carbon emissions reduction efforts are proactive, high quality and secure.

You help speed up the transition to a low-carbon future.

Making it Simple
To make it simple, Climakind provides affordable and easily recognisable levels of participation. You can choose to cancel carbon emission credits equal to one year of your annual carbon emissions and instantly become a Gold member, or start with one month’s carbon emissions as a Bronze member. You can add to your membership anytime through the member lounge at www.climakind.com. You can even compare your purchases to the global average over different time periods.

All this makes being Climakind (ClimateKind – to be climate kind is to be kind to the climate) more than just a simple carbon offset or carbon neutral solution.

You can make a difference
Whether you are a business or an individual Climakind can help you reduce carbon emissions.

Visit www.climakind.com and register to cancel carbon emission credits today.

Help make a difference. Act now to reduce global carbon emissions and encourage investment in low carbon-solutions.

You can have a meaningful impact in the transition to a sustainable future. You can make a difference.