Friday 29 January 2010

Factors To Consider Before Buying Carbon Offset

By Jennifer Bennett

As people are becoming aware of the devastating effects of global warming on the environment, methods like carbon offset and carbon credits are gaining wide acceptance throughout the world as effective tools for environment protection.

If you have been responsible for pollution and now want to set things right, then you can buy an amount of carbon offset equivalent to your total amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Purchasing a carbon offset means that the amount you spend will be poured into projects such as wind farms that produce clean energy and lower emissions.

Before buying a carbon offset, it will be a good idea to recognize what causes the release of greenhouse gases in your daily life. When people drive their cars, fly in airplanes, use home appliances like heaters or air conditioners, they are causing carbon emissions.

Once you have listed out all these actions, you must think of which of those you can lessen or completely get rid of. Such a goal oriented approach would reduce the adverse effects that you bring on the environment. You can contribute to a greener environment by insulating your house when making use of heating or cooling appliances, driving only as much as necessary and by using energy efficient lights in your home.

After you have taken into account all the areas where you can make changes, you must start calculating your carbon footprint, which will be the total emissions arising from all your remaining actions. When it comes to diverse activities, no two methods of emission calculation are identical, but you can take help of many online calculators made for the objective.

Carbon offset providers counterbalance carbon emission from your activities by lowering emissions in any part of the world through your buying of offset. There are different ways of lowering emissions and you can pick a project from the ones provided by the offset providers for your investment. But you need to be careful while making your choice. To make sure that your money will be used properly you should only select projects with sound credentials. Schemes that have passed quality tests conducted by authentic certifying organizations are the best ones to put money in, as they bear the seal of genuineness and can be relied upon.

Finally, you should gather enough information on the subject from different sources. It will help you find out who the most authentic offset providers are, what kind of projects are most appropriate for an investment, and how to monitor the progress of the project that you have put your money in.

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1 comment:

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