Carbon Offsetting Word Report

Carbon Offsetting Word Report

Carbon offsetting is a practice of trade in which carbon offsets bought help to fund projects that help reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Companies and governments that need to meet their emission target (reduce their carbon footprints and build up its green image), invest in emission reduction projects in developing countries. These investments help reduce carbon emissions in most developing countries through project activities such as tree planting and use of renewable energy. In return, the investing organizations and governmental agencies obtain a certificate for payments of carbon offsets.

There are several golden standards pertaining to the practice of carbon offsetting. Among the golden standards for using carbon offsetting is that it is considered to be the most rigorous method in successfully meeting emission targets by Non-governmental organizations. An example of such a successful organization is the World Wide Fund for Nature. In addition, carbon offsetting ensures that projects pursued benefit the local population while reducing carbon footprints in the environment. For these reasons, the strategy is considered as to being the best. Unfortunately, only 19% of carbon offsetting schemes are certified using the golden standards. The statistics indicate the need for more organization and governmental schemes to adhere to carbon offsetting standards for certification.

Aside analyzing carbon offsetting, the reports analyzes company performance goals. To perform the performance analysis, we make a comparison of the organization’s goals and advantages against the shortcomings when implementing carbon offsetting project schemes. The comparison is elaborated below:

Tree Planting

The advantages associated with tree planting are that it is cheap (costs about £15 per tree), it is also consistent with the Scottish forestry strategy, and the method’s achievement by Trees4Scotland is exemplary from the 2018’s records (4,000 hectares). The challenge is that the method is quite uncertain since there is no guarantee the trees will have a long shelf life. Besides, tree planting is of low effectiveness and trees have also a limited capacity.

Improve Energy Efficiency and New Energy Development

The major goal for the Atmosfair Company on improving energy efficiency is based on distributing efficient cook stoves in Nigeria in supporting hydropower projects. The advantage is that the method or program is in accordance to the golden standards. In addition, the German organization is advantageous in that it is among the few companies using scientific methods for carbon emission calculation. The shortcomings with this method strategy are that it is highly expensive. It costs £107 to offset only 5 tons of carbon dioxide.

Stop Deforestation

The United Kingdom Company, (Climate Care), has the project goal of improving fuel efficiency in Ghana, landfill energy in Thailand and protecting rainforest in Brazil. To do so, the company needs to design projects according to their customer’s needs. The advantage, however, is that the project program is fairly cheap (it costs about £37.50 to offset only 5 tons of carbon dioxide).  The company’s shortcoming is in violation of human rights. Besides, the company cannot ensure the distribution of sustainable goods actually reaches the locals.