Offsetting carbon emissions

A help for the troubled mind

How much is my debt in carbon - Actually?! This is a question that creeps upon us the more we accept the need for individual actions. Climate Care in UK has developed a good web-calculator that covers most human activities in home and work and also allows for making use of more common units than the British. The input for flights is simple since you can use the itinerary (departure and destination) data. There are a few more such calculators but many off them require that you e.g. know how many miles your flights is, which few of us do.

Then there is off course the issue on what sort of offsets you should by where there is a reason to be cautious as has been pointed out before on this site. The organisations that provide the calculators have their own offers, which are project portfolios.

There is also in some countries the option to buy real emission rights from the European Trading System and thereby prevent further emissions within the system. Presently that is a bargain since the prices have dropped tremendously due to the warm winter. Prices are below 5€ per tonne of CO2 whereas the price for emissions in December 2008 are in the area of 15€ per tonne.