The Biochar Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Greenhouse Gases’

“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.

Incoming search terms:

• carbon capture
• co2 sequestration
• whirlpool carbon credit offset

Cities and towns around the world that are scrambling to cope with the related problems of pollution, over crowding and traffic congestion are turning to alternative and non powered modes of transport as the solution to these multiple problems. Modes of transport like cycles are now slowly coming back into vogue in many areas, and in some towns and cities far thinking councils have already made cycling the way to travel.

The advantages of cycling as compared to other forms of transport are manifold. Cycling is great cardiovascular exercise and has proven health benefits. It is as easy on the pocket as it is on the environment. No fuel means no astronomical fuel bills or sticker shock from sky rocketing fuel prices and it also means zero emissions, zero damage to the ozone layer and no greenhouse gases. Cycling is a quiet and efficient means of transport. Most vehicular traffic in cities is because of cars and other vehicles occupied by a single person. Cycles take a fraction of the space on the road as compared to any motorised vehicle and they are completely silent. Over the kinds of short distance that a lot of the city commutes daily, a cycle may actually be faster than sitting in a traffic jam.

Businesses, schools and other institutions and city councils looking for ways to promote cycling spend a lot of money building expensive cycle lanes and traffic signals for cyclists. One of the often over looked methods of promoting cycling is to install cycle shelters. In most cities, one of the reasons people think twice before cycling anywhere is the absence of a safe location to park and lock their cycles once they get to their destination. More people would use cycles if they were sure that there was a safe cycle shelter that provided a lockable stand for their cycles and protection from the elements at their destination.

Modern cycle shelters are not only easy to install, taking just a few hours, they are also very durable. They not only protect people and their cycles from the elements but stand up to the elements themselves for years. A well designed and well built cycle shelter will provide service for years with very little maintenance and upkeep. Various new materials make these shelters cheap as well. Councils can install many more shelters for the same budget now and really give this happy trend a big boost.

Incoming search terms:

• traffic jam city cycling

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.

Incoming search terms:

• carbon storage
• carbon footprint

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.

Incoming search terms:

• biochar offset protocol
• offset carbons

In a rather “environmentally concerned” approach to cut down on the carbon emission from flights, Lufthansa airlines has announced that they will start commercial biofuel flights daily between Hamburg and Frankfurt in a six-month trial from April 2011. The move to operate an aircraft engine with biofuel over a long stretch of six months, is first of its kind in the world.

Energy security issues, hike in petrol prices and climate change from greenhouse gases emitted by airplanes have been troubling the airline industry for quite some time. Virgin Atlantic Airlines, British Airways and Continental Airline have have already tested on biofuel flights in the last two years. However, environmentalists have been constantly warning that production of biofuels can also have adverse effects on environment.

Utilizing biofuel in flight operations can save around 1,500 tonnes (15,00,000 kg) of Carbon dioxide emissions. However, as the airline industry worldwide is calling for an alternative source of energy, there’s a need to check for the sustainability of biofuels against fossil fuels and their effect on aircraft’s engine over a longer term. Plus, environmental concerns are another big issue related to production of biofuels.

According to a report by UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, biofuel plantations are destroying ecosystem of various regions in the world. Palm oil plantations set up for biofuel production in Indonesia and Malaysia, have led to deforestation resulting in more emission of greenhouse gases as the worst consequence.

In such a situation, a sustainable and environment-friendly way to produce biofuels is the need of the hour.

Incoming search terms:

• biofuel hazard
• british airways airlines
• continental airline
• malaysian palm oil
• palm oil

Air pollution is one of the problems that our world is facing. We talk about air pollution but we do not know where it comes from, what causes air pollution and how it can be toppled down. Air pollution does not only give us detrimental effects in terms of the environment but also affects our health.

Click Here To Know More On How To Rid My Carbon Now!

What causes air pollution? How can we put a stop on these factors which causes air pollution? Let us discover together what the causes are.  There are actually many things that cause air pollution. First on the list would be the exhaust of cars, trucks and other combustion engines. They produce smog which is composed of harmful greenhouse gases.  Smog can affect people’s health and the worsening problem of the ozone layer.

Secondly, factories are also major contributors to air pollution. As we always say, together with progress, the problem of air pollution also worsens. The emissions from factories which are mainly caused by burning of fossil fuels and coals cause air pollution. Add to that the use of petroleum which releases particulates which contributes to air pollution.

Chemicals and pesticides can also contribute to air pollution. Take into consideration also the ventilation in rooms, buildings, offices wherein toxic paints, chemicals and sprays not exposed or released can cause air pollution. Anything that is not good to the health like dusts can cause air pollution. Even mills, plants and mining can contribute to air pollution.

Those were just some factors that cause air pollution. A volcanic eruption is perhaps the most common natural cause of air pollution. Methane emission can also be a cause of air pollution, now that you know what the things that cause air pollution are, try to reduce it in your own little way. Do your role and responsibility to the environment.

Click Here To Know More On How To Rid My Carbon Now!