A Climate Change Failure

Australia's delayed action on climate change is an 'absolute failure of leadership'. Those were the words Kevin Rudd uttered only months before declaring this week that the Australian Emissions Trading Scheme (the CPRS - Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) would be delayed until 2013 at the earliest.

No wonder the people of Australia are frustrated. The Prime Minister was adamant that the CPRS was the "most important structural reforms to our economy in a generation" and branded climate change as "the great moral and economic challenge of our time".

Lenore Taylor sums up the political back-tracking and side-stepping in The Sydney Morning Herald article "Rudd's ETS flip-flop sparks climate chaos" as does Paul Kelly in The Australian, "Rudd's dangerous climate retreat".

However, the failure to adopt and Australian ETS does not stop Climakind but rather strengthens the initiative. While Australians have been denied the opportunity to act directly to conclusively reduce carbon emissions in Australia they can still have an impact on the reduction of global carbon emissions.

If you are frustrated by the inaction on climate change and want to reduce global carbon emissions then do something about it by following simple tips to reduce your carbon footprint and by joining Climakind to cancel carbon emission credits!

What are the alternatives to carbon offset / carbon neutralise emissions?

In our last blog “What’s in a carbon offset” we looked at the value of neutralising carbon emissions. We concluded that more and more people are using carbon offsetting, believeing that it will reduce carbon emissions. But the question still remains, does a carbon offset really help to reduce carbon emissions. The fact is, the degree of success depends on the type of credit used. Let’s look at the types of credits available.

Basically there are three types of carbon credits used to offset carbon emissions. For the sake of this blog I am going to refer to them as Tree Credits, Renewable Energy Credits and Carbon Emissions Credits. Though technically speaking when most people think of offsets they are referring to Tree Credits and Renewable Energy Credits. Carbon Emissions Credits offer a powerful and effective alternative because they can be used to actually reduce carbon emissions. But more about that soon, for the moment let’s look at the three options:

1. Tree Credits. These credits are generally made from growing forests or stopping forests being cut down. The trees sequester (suck) the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Now, while we love trees and always need more of them there are issues with using them as carbon credits. The band Cold Play found this out recently when their efforts to neutralise their concerts backfired. Their credits were based on mangrove plantations. The mangroves died.

The issues also include the centuries-long management processes required to ensure the trees live healthily. As a purchaser it is difficult to police how the money spent and whether the trees actually survive long enough to suck up the carbon dioxide you paid for. But most of all, it is reactive. It deals with the carbon emissions after they have occurred rather than stopping them from ever occurring.

The reality is we already emit more carbon dioxide that we can plant trees!

2. Renewable Energy Credits. These credits are created from projects to produce renewable energy or trap greenhouse gases. The carbon credits represent the emissions that would have been caused had the renewable project not occured. Ie if the hydro dam was not built a coal fired power station would have been. The money from the carbon credits is used to fund the project. The idea is that carbon emissions have been avoided and therefore can be made into credits and used to offset emissions somewhere else in the world.

This is a noble cause as a large number of these projects occur in developing countries. The poor living standard and fast paced growth in these countries requires enormous amounts of energy. Renewable Energy offset projects help fund this low carbon growth. That’s why they are an appealing option because you are helping to fund a project that reduces emissions, gives power to communities and creates employment.

However, there are risks with creating carbon credits from these projects. Mostly the question of additionality; would the project have occured without the carbon credits? If so the carbon credits have no value as offsets because they have not actually reduced carbon dioxide. International Rivers has been reporting on this for years. There is also the question of the impact on the environment on the value of the credits. Ie. If a hydro dam is built what is the impact on the people, the forests that were in the valley (a carbon sink) and the downstream community reliant on the water?

3. Carbon Emissions Credits. These credits are created by schemes to limit the amount of carbon emissions from industry. These schemes, often referred to as cap and trade or emissions trading, provide a limited pool of carbon credits, credits that industry requires in order to legally emit carbon dioxide. The credits are regulated by the government. In a well designed scheme like the European Emissions Trading Scheme, emitters are heavily penalised if they do not have sufficient credits. The idea is that each year fewer and fewer credits are issued so that the emissions reduction targets are met.

While these carbon emissions credits are required by the regulated industries they can also be used voluntary, providing an alternative to the classic carbon offset of Trees and Renewable Energy above.

The advantage of voluntarily cancelling carbon emission credits is that it reduces the credits available to emitters. This encourages emitters to be innovative and to develop low-carbon solutions.

Think about it this way, cancelling carbon emissions credits is proactive emission reduction, because the right to emit carbon is cancelled before it is used. Using these credits voluntarily also provides certainty and security because the transaction is transparent and can withstand the scrutiny of market regulators.

As Paul Gilding, ex CEO of Greenpeace, said in his recent article “How to carbon offset your family holiday”, retiring carbon emissions credits may not be the most exciting form of reducing emissions but it is the most pure.

More and more individuals and businesses are using carbon credits to neutralise their carbon emissions. There are several carbon credits to choose from. The characteristics of these carbon credits can be represented by a spectrum of quality.

Hopefully as people become acutely aware of the issues surrounding damaging climate change, and as they become more educated about the different types of carbon credit, more people will choose to use the most pure form of reducing carbon emissions by cancelling carbon emission credits.

What is My Carbon Footprint?

A Goal to Cancel Personally Controllable Carbon Emissions

In this article we will look at the benefits of using an individual’s average controllable carbon emissions as a goal to reduce carbon emissions credits as opposed to reducing a carbon footprint. If every individual in the developed world cancelled 12 tonnes of carbon emissions credits it would amount to about 14.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is about half the world’s total annual carbon emissions!

There are many definitions of a carbon footprint. In general, it provides a measure of the annual carbon emissions for which something is responsible. A carbon footprint can be calculated for many things, such as an individual, family, business, group, product or an event. A carbon footprint can serve as an indicator to measure the progress of emission reduction efforts or as a goal to neutralise by cancelling carbon credits.

Knowing and reducing your footprint is an ideal goal but does it really reduce the dependency on fossil fuels? Until we find a way to make low carbon solutions economically attractive fossil fuels will continue to appeal to those who are not convinced by the need to act now.

Cancelling genuine carbon emissions credits provides a more conclusive solution to help drive the change to low carbon solutions. It helps reduce the supply of credits available to emitters of carbon dioxide. If the number of carbon emission credits is limited, then the reduction in supply will tend to put upward pressure on the price of the remaining carbon credits. In doing so it increases the cost of fossil fuel energy. That helps change the balance in favour of low carbon solutions. Most people accept that low carbon solutions are the only way to a sustainable future.

Knowing that buying and cancelling carbon emissions credits can make a difference is the first step, next we need to know how many to buy and cancel. This is where the idea of controllable carbon emissions comes into play. By calculating the average personally controllable carbon emissions we arrive at a goal that individuals can aim for that will help reduce carbon emissions and help stop damaging climate change.

Your personally controllable carbon emissions are those over which you have control. They result from your daily activities. There are many ways to calculate an individual's controllable carbon emissions. Here we look at the carbon emissions from the main energy consumption activities which include, household electricity, vehicle travel, waste, air travel, and other. Table 1 shows the personally controllable carbon emissions equal 12 tonnes for an individual on average.

A bit less than half an individual’s carbon emissions come directly from electricity; of which a large part goes in heating water and household heating/cooling. Vehicle travel is responsible for about a quarter of emissions. Other includes natural gas, public transport and community infrastructure.

These are averages, meaning some people will consume less and some more. For example, private vehicle emissions can vary based on the size of the car and the conditions that the car is driven. There are also areas we have not covered such as carbon emissions from food, clothing and education.

What is important is that you as an individual now have an understanding of where your emissions are likely to come from. With some more information and a few tips you can start to reduce them.

It also provides a goal for the cancellation of carbon emissions credits. A goal that is internationally comparable across developed countries. A goal that is easily recognised and indentified by the Climakind levels of participation.

If every individual in the developed world cancelled 12 tonnes of carbon emissions credits it would amount to about 14.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is about half the world’s total annual carbon emissions!

Climakind provides an interface to simplify your emissions reduction efforts through cancelling carbon emissions credits. Visit http://www.climakind.com/ today.

Make a difference. Cancel Carbon Emissions Credits.

Climakind.com is a CO2NeutralWebsite

The internet is a good thing for the climate. It reduces the need for transportation. It reduces the need for printing brochures and leaflets. But the internet also causes carbon emissions due to the electricity consumption.

The use of the internet today is estimated to cause more carbon emissions than airfreight! This is due to the electricity used to run the servers behind websites as well as the computers and monitors of the visitors.

If the electricity is generated from fossil fuels such as carbon then the website is responsible for a "carbon footprint".

CO2NeutralWebsite have created an algorithm to calculate the CO2 emissions generated by the traffic on your site. Now you can estimate the carbon emissions and match them with genuine carbon credits, effectively neutralising the websites carbon footprint.

Climakind.com is proud to be the first Australian based website to join the voluntary initiative CO2NeutralWebsite.

Both large and small companies from many different countries participate in the initiative. In total more than 800 companies have joined.

A website is a very visible part of your business. Neutralising the carbon emissions created by surfing your site can appeal to your visitors. It can help position your brand as environmentally concerned and visibly active in reducing carbon emissions credits. CO2NeutralWebsite believes your "company gets a good profile that is far bigger than the cost of joining."

Normally the cost of participating is 31 AUD per month (the algorithm is based on site traffic).

Please find further information regarding the CO2 initiative at the official website.

Make low-carbon solutions attractive

Welcome back from the festive season. I hope everyone had a good break and is enjoying a positive start to the new year.

We all have high expectations of what 2010 will bring. Of one thing you can almost be sure, in 2010 the world will make big advances in low-carbon solutions.

But the question will remain, "how do we get people and business to shift from high carbon fossil fuels such as coal and oil to low-carbon solutions"? To do that we need to make low-carbon solutions more economically attractive!

One way to achieve the transition is to change the equilibrium of energy by Making low-carbon solutions such as natural gas, wind and solar more economic attractive. It makes a lot of sense. Rather than waiting until “E-day” (the 'End' of easily accessible high grade oil) we can slowly wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

How do we achieve this? We use an already established pricing mechanism to slowly change the price differential between oil and low-carbon energy.

One such pricing mechanism is the European Emissions Trading Scheme. The price is the value of a carbon credit. A carbon credit puts a price on a tonne of carbon dioxide. By purchasing and cancelling a credit you are removing it from a limited pool of credits before it can be used to emit carbon dioxide. The price of the remaining credits will likely rise as a result of the diminishing supply. Emitters will be forced to invest in low-carbon solutions making them more economically attractive – the only way to a sustainable future!

There is a reason that this sounds like simple, transparent and effective way to make low-carbon solutions attractive. It is.

Carbon Emissions Reduction - It's Easy

David Birley's video shows how easy it is to reduce global carbon emission credits.

When David Birley from InfoExpress heard about Climakind he was completely taken by the simplicity and effectiveness of the idea. So taken that he went back to his office and created the ‘It’s Easy’ video. The video captures the attention and amazes the senses, all while showing how easy it is to reduce carbon emission credits through Climakind – that’s what I call information express!