Offsetting the Carbon Footprint

Driving, flying, and heating homes are examples of common activities that consume energy and emit carbon emissions. Carbon offsetting is a method of compensating for your emissions by sponsoring a carbon reduction elsewhere.

Individuals and businesses may invest in environmental initiatives all around the world to offset their own carbon footprints through carbon offset programmes. Typically, the initiatives are centered in underdeveloped nations and are intended to minimize future emissions. This might entail implementing renewable energy technology or acquiring and disposing of carbon credits obtained through an emissions trading mechanism. Other solutions function by absorbing CO2 from the air directly through planting trees.

Some people and businesses offset their total carbon footprint, while others try to offset the impact of a single activity, such as flying. To do so, the traveler goes to an offset website, calculates their trip’s emissions using online tools, and then pays the offset firm to cut emissions elsewhere in the globe by the same amount – thereby making the flight “carbon neutral.”

The main issue with offsets is that they don’t deliver on their promises. They don’t truly cancel out – or, to be more precise, offset – the emissions to which they’re tied. Offsetting initiatives just do not meet our needs for a decrease in carbon emissions entering the environment. Instead, they serve as a diversion from the genuine issues of climate change. As a result, offsetting allows firms like BP and Shell, as well as airlines, to continue their unsustainable practices while transferring their climate duty to the customer.

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References

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/16/carbon-offset-projects-carbon-emissions