February 17, 2007
From Guardian (UK)
As has been discussed in this blog (and many other sources) many times, carbon taxes are NOT THE SOLUTION to climate change. It is a step on the way and this article discusses the confusion punters must have when trying to do something positive by buying carbon offsets.
Why it's harder than you think to pay for a carbon guilt trip
Stumping up to compensate for environmentally costly air travel is a complicated business. Patrick Collinson investigates
Offset schemes promise to ease the eco-conscience of air travellers by neutralising the global-warming effects of trips for just a fraction of the cost of a flight. But when Guardian Money put the offsetters to the test, we found carbon calculations for the same flight varied by 200%, and the most expensive offsetters cost nearly 10 times as much as the cheapest.
Buying an offset for a flight looks relatively simple. A quick search on Google throws up large numbers of offset companies. Just enter your journey details, press the button and you are instantly provided with a read-out of the amount of carbon emitted and how much it will cost to offset. For the test, I gave details of a recent return flight from London to Cape Town which I am keen to offset.
But as the test progressed, peculiarities began to emerge. The first company I tested, Carbon Neutral, told me my flight emitted 2.1 tonnes of carbon. But at Climate Care, I was told the figure was 2.82 tonnes. Over at EasyBeingGreen the figure was 5.75 tonnes, while Atmosfair (Germany's biggest offset company) said I need to offset 7.04 tonnes. Yet on each site I had entered precisely the same details.
When it came to pricing, some charged as little as £5 a tonne to offset my emissions, while others went as high as £20 a tonne. But when I checked the "spot price" of carbon offsets on the EU's emission trading scheme, the market is quoting just £1.34 a tonne. And there was also the small matter of VAT. Carbon Neutral said I had to pay it, while Climate Care said I did not.
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Read the article.
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2 comments:
I run a travel website and have been feeling a bit guilty about it, given that it effectively encourages people to fly - hence spewing carbon into the atmosphere. On the other hand the A380 uses only 3 litres per passenger per 100km - which makes it more fuel efficient than driving.
Carbon neutral flights are an interesting phenomenon and we're going to get better and better at it. Have a good flight to Cape Town.
Appreciate youu blogging this
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