Carbon credits

[despaer]

Are these worth the electronic paper they are printed on or do they do no good whatsoever? I ask because my employer has just brought a load to make itself carbon neutral but I have no real idea whether this actually helps the environment or whether by preserving trees on plantation A one simply comdemns those on plantation B, for example.

Comments

[flitljm]

Sometimes. Do you know if your employer has bought them on the voluntary market or as part of the European emissions trading scheme?

Within the voluntary market I am recommending http://www.climatecare.org

[despaer]

They said it is part of a UN scheme and not a voluntary/unregulated thing, and the example they gave was using the money from the credits to build a bio plant in India.

[flitljm]

Aha, they probably mean its under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. This is the most legitimate you can get - there are pretty strict guidelines & assessment to ensure actual carbon benefits.