And the fluffy side of the carbon industry finally starts bitchin' about each other. It's probably some kind of coming-of-age thing.
However, I'm quite pleased to read it, because I was genuinely wondering where the best place for private offset purchase was (and have a strong bias against simple reforestry, chemical disintegration and most bovine byproduct processing mechanisms). Thanks for pointing to it.
The trouble with generating carbon offsets is that there are a zillion ways to do it and it's difficult to assess their relative impacts. The UNFCC, which administers the CDM, spends most of its time arguing about whether to accept new methodologies and almost none of its time validating projects, which annoys the people trying to build and finance the projects (who not philanthropists). I suspect that bypassing this bureacracy is half the reason there is a voluntary credit market in Europe.
I agree with Adam that the report could do with not skimming over validation quite as briskly, and seems to put too much weight on customer education about why they should buy offsets. Surely customer education on climate change is just sales pitch for these companies?
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Date: 2006-12-06 04:11 pm (UTC)However, I'm quite pleased to read it, because I was genuinely wondering where the best place for private offset purchase was (and have a strong bias against simple reforestry, chemical disintegration and most bovine byproduct processing mechanisms). Thanks for pointing to it.
The trouble with generating carbon offsets is that there are a zillion ways to do it and it's difficult to assess their relative impacts. The UNFCC, which administers the CDM, spends most of its time arguing about whether to accept new methodologies and almost none of its time validating projects, which annoys the people trying to build and finance the projects (who not philanthropists). I suspect that bypassing this bureacracy is half the reason there is a voluntary credit market in Europe.
I agree with Adam that the report could do with not skimming over validation quite as briskly, and seems to put too much weight on customer education about why they should buy offsets. Surely customer education on climate change is just sales pitch for these companies?