The British government has proposed new, higher standards
to cover offsets of carbon emissions by organisations and individuals. The
regulations would be similar to those set for project developers creating carbon
credits under the
Kyoto
Protocol.
Increasingly companies and individuals are choosing to go
“carbon neutral’ by paying to offset their emissions associated with household
energy use, car and plane travel. The rise in the voluntary offset market has
seen a raft of suppliers enter the market offering things like tree-planting
schemes to absorb carbon dioxide, and investment in new wind turbines for
renewable energy.
Environment minister David Miliband said the code was
designed to ensure that when people buy offsets they can be sure they are making
a difference – that the emission-reducing activities they pay for actually do
occur.
Kyoto carbon credits,
CERs and
ERUs,
flow from projects which must pass a series of approval, certification and
verification tests before credits can be issued. The time lags and bureaucracy
associated with approving these credits have become a major headache for the
governments and project developers.
But by applying the tough Kyoto
standards to the voluntary offset market, the prices for carbon offsets in
Britain are likely to rise substantially compared to the unregulated market,
drawing criticism from some sections of the industry.
Environment
ministry figures show the average price of unregulated offsets at around eight
pounds Sterling
per
tonne of CO2 equivalent and Kyoto carbon credits are around 17 pounds per
tonne. Prices in the partly-regulated US voluntary market are as low as $4 per
tonne. There a standard has emerged around Verified Emission Reductions (VERs)
which is not as onerous as the Kyoto standards.
Environment groups say
offsets shouldn’t be allowed at all because they give consumers and companies an
easy way out – paying some one else to cut emissions rather than taking steps to
reduce their own.
Miliband conceded that said offsetting schemes were not
the ultimate answer for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the new code
would "raise the bar". Four UK existing offset providers were names as already
meeting the Kyoto standard; Pure, Global Cool, Equiclimate and Carbon
Offsets.
The new UK regulations are expected to take effect some time in
the second half of 2007 after a consultation period.
Reuters,
Environmental Data Interactive, New Scientist.com 18/1/07