Best Carbon Offsetting Program for Individuals

bilbot79

I'm interested in Offsetting my personal carbon emissions and see you can sign up to some subscriptions e.g. 'Ecologi'.

I did a survey with climate hero which suggested I'm causing 9.5 tonnes of carbon per year and I can offset that and more for something like 22e a month. If this is real and trustworthy I would jump at the chance.

Does anyone else do this currently and do you have any recommendations or tips?

L1011

Nearly all offset schemes are scams unfortunately. The schemes they use to generate the carbon credits are often nonsense - "saving" forests that weren't under threat to begin with is the most egregious one that still happens - as I believe the old method of making CFCs to get credits for then destroying them has stopped.

Find out exactly what each scheme actually does to get carbon credits. If they just buy them, you may be funding something that's actually worse than doing nothing.

dePeatrick

Looked into that, looks like BS to me. I’d be very suspicious of a scam tbh…

bilbot79

+1 on the potential for scams. That's part of the reason for raising the thread, to draw on people's experiences.

magicbastarder

Also beware schemes which plant trees on bogland.

It'd be more productive usually to identify what is the low hanging fruit in your own co2 production and eliminate that.

bilbot79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119316003#Comment_119316003

Thanks. After identifying the low hanging fruit and pledging to change habits etc I'm still left with some 7 tonnes of CO2

From what I can see there are 2 main standards, VCS and Gold Standard, so I'm presuming that's the closest we can get to a scheme being considered regulated/audited.

Robert333111

Contributor "billbot79" wrote:
'I'm interested in Offsetting my personal carbon emissions and see you can sign up to some subscriptions e.g. 'Ecologi'.

While it is always the right thing to do to carry out, or pay for, the actions that constitute "Off-setting" (such as planting more trees), my personal view from the available information, is that the concept of "Off-setting" is completely bogus.

This is because there is not enough “off-set” in the entire world, to “off-set” "Human Greenhouse Gas Emissions". Also therefore, when governments and companies refer to meeting targets for “net zero” by paying for "Off-setting", the concept of "Net zero" based on "Off-setting", is likewise bogus.