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Carbon Footprint

What is the meaning of Carbon Neutral?

There are a lot of energy environmental buzzwords around so it can be difficult to find a clear meaning of what carbon neutral means. Carbon neutral means that the usual greenhouse gas emissions released through your house hold energy have been neutralized so are no longer a danger to world global warming

  • In the U.S and Canada the majority of dangerous emissions come from industry with an average 25% coming from personal activities. There are however some emissions eliminated from the 25% as there is still no way to measure carbon emissions from the common things we buy like cars, food, and homes which all require energy to create, package and ship.
  • Our biggest environmental problem is global climate change which needs urgent attention According to a 2004 study from a team of biologists from the university of Leeds in the U.K, by 2050 15% - 37% of all land based animals and plants will become extinct if temperatures continue to rise as the forecast predicts.

By reducing your personal emissions and becoming carbon neutral you are making a huge contribution to this problem.

The Effects of Carbon Offsets!

First of all in simple terms a carbon offset can neutralize the impact of carbon emissions

How?

  • As trees absorb carbon dioxide companies plant trees to offset the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels, this is called sequestration. The only problem with this is that it is not truly carbon neutral. Trees store the carbon up for the life of the tree but trees only live for tens or hundreds of years so its a short term solution. When the tree dies the carbon will be released back into the atmosphere so to be truly carbon neutral there has to be a way of securing the planting of trees in the future. There is also a risk that with increasing temperature's the trees will cease to grow and succumb to pest damage or burn resulting in the emissions being released early.
  • Replacing the use of diesel, gas, kerosene and oil with a wind turbine or photovoltaic panel will reduce the impact of CO2 emissions normally released by these fossil fuels.
  • The carbon saving initiative must be installed by you because it would not normally happen. For example: If you financially support someone's solar panal activity, this will not be a valid contribution.
  • To reduce your personal emissions you will need to install more solar PV to create surplus energy. This surplus solar energy can then be sold to the national grid where effectively it will reduce the need for using fossil fuels to create electricity.

Carbon Sequestration

This is a geo-engineering technique used for the long term storage of carbon dioxide to lessen the impact of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide is captured through a chemical, biological or physical process, and will reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses, CO2 released by fossil fuels.

Hard and Soft Carbon Offsets

There are two types of carbon offsets, hard and soft. A hard offset neutralizes a measured quantity of CO2, and a soft offset is a financial contribution which supports an organization that is helping the fight against global climate change and effectively reduce emissions.

To ensure the offset you paid for is happening and cannot be sold on to anyone else the global market place now has a system of verification, which sustains the offsets credibility. Some offsets are required by companies to abide by state regulations, and some companies buy offsets as a commitment to reduce emissions.

As stated above soft carbon offsets are financial contributions, however there are specifications on the validity of these offsets.

  • Your contribution must help to hire a member of staff whose efforts must result in the power utilities to offset 50% of their CO2 emissions, which is a huge achievement resulting in state legislature passing a bill.
  • The same applies if the organization is in public education, or promoting cycling instead of driving a car.
  • The amount of carbon reduced by your contribution can never be actually measured, hence the name soft offset, however it still passes as a totally valid offset to reducing personal emissions.

Summary

  • The stability of climate and eco systems all around the world are threatened by global climate change. Fossil fuels for personal use through home heating, electricity, motor vehicles and aeroplanes can produce 5 tons of CO2 per year per U.S citizen. A typical working citizen could produce 10 to 15 tons by themselves per year. Its imperetive to find ways of reducing these emissions and neutralize the impact of the ones we cannot reduce.
  • For as little as $400 a solar PV system as your main source of lighting will offset 6 tons of CO2 over it's 20 year lifetime. Or if a contribution of $400 is invested into a loan fund to enable the finance of a 6.6 solar system, over the same time period this will offset 40 tons of CO2 at a price of $10 per ton. To calculate your personal emissions simply purchase a carbon calculator.
  • Moving house to a carbon neutral society will take time. To make alternative energy and bio fuels economical the government may take tax breaks. People can take steps themselves as discussed above towards being carbon neutral by switching to bio fuels or adding an alternative energy system. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid fossil fuels, however people can focus more on reducing their fossil fuel use to a bare minimum, and switch to bio fuels as soon as they can. This will take peole that step closer to the ideal situation of eventually becoming carbon neutral.