Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

SmartPlanet TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via RSS

•  
  1

  280ppm

  07/10/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  Heather,
  Whether the CO2 reduction occurs inside a companies gates or outside is irrelevant to the planet. Carbon offsets enable a person, company or country to reduce their carbon footprint, and impact on climate change, in the fastest, most efficient way.
  
  If Yahoo! used to pay $6.00 to reduce a ton of CO2 with offsets, and now, because of public pressure, are paying $15.00 to reduce a ton inside their gates (server farms), you have not helped the planet any more but have made the cost significantly higher. Conversely, if Yahoo! has found internal reductions for $4.00, of course they should pursue them, and that is hardly a rejection of carbon offsets. Indeed, the offsets they used to buy probably cost the project developer $4.00 which they sold for $6.00 to make it profitable.
  
  If you're into solving climate change, tear down your thinking boundaries. You offset things every day. You buy food from a grocery store because it would cost you too much to make it yourself. Your clothes are (likely) made overseas because it is too expensive in the US. Your computer, which you don't consider an indulgence, is built elsewhere, all offset with your dollars because it is more efficient to solve that problem.
  
  Let's not forget the benefits of carbon offsets. Supporting development and technology transfer, along with jobs and investment, in the developing world. Building wind farms in struggling farming communities, bringing investment, expertise and diversity to crop-based economies and keeping high skilled people in rural areas. And doing so while fighting climate change in the most effective way possible.
  
  If you are in favor of cap-and-trade legislation, and you should be, you are in favor of carbon offsets. The "trade" in cap-and-trade means offsets; one group increases while another decreases and a trade is made, exactly what occurs with offsets.
  
  Eric

•  
  2

  alord017al

  07/14/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  Eric- I think what Heather is meaning to say is that Yahoo! is
  attempting to use the idea of carbon neutrality in its strict
  interpretation (I would guess she's got a very solid understanding of
  the beneficial ripple effect of carbon offsets).
  
  Purchasing offsets that directly fund projects does actually have a
  carbon footprint- everything does. They are looking internally to
  reduce theirs, rather than maintain static efficiency or inefficiency
  while investing in other projects. Maybe this is an approach other
  companies that are of Yahoo!'s size and stability should note.
  
  Tightening their belt on internal carbon intensity doesn't have to
  necessarily diminish their CSR. They've done a short-term
  prioritization. Maybe this is a bit idealistic, but a micro approach to
  sustainability could free them up financially to, later, invest/contribute
  to green on an external/ macro level.
  
  

•  
  3

  adornoe@...

  07/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  Hey, Eric, you need to follow through on all of your thinking.
  
  If a company decides to farm out their production, you are automatically thinking that they've lowered their carbon foot-print because they'll be using less energy or fuels in their production of their goods.
  
  Yet, the opposite would be true. Think about it a bit.
  
  As an example, Wal-mart imports a lot of their products from China and Mexico and many other countries. Wal-mart does not produce any of their products. In that sense, their production foot-print is virtually non-existent. Yet, when you look at where Wal-mart gets their products from, you'll notice that virtually all of the countries involved don't give a rat's a-s-s about carbon footprints. In the overall equation, you could say that the Wal-marts of the world have a much higher carbon foot-print than those that produce their goods in their own country because their own country would have stricter guidelines for energy and fuel usage. Google, and Yahoo would have a much higher carbon foot-print than normal if they decided to set up their server farms overseas where the carbon crowd would not be able to regulate.
  
  Thus, there are many companies that appear to have no carbon footprint, yet, when the overall trail of their production is analyzed, they might end up near the top of those with huge carbon footprints.
  
  The coming carbon cap-and-trade crap will end up costing many millions of jobs to Americans. The jobs and factories with high-carbon foot-prints will end up being shipped overseas where the people and countries don't give a damn about green energy or carbon foot-prints. Yet, the American company will end up with a very low carbon footprint and the overseas company doing the production will have a very huge foot-print. In fact, CO2 emissions will increase overall rather than decrease.
  
  The carbon legislation being drawn up by Obama and the democrats will have very dire and unintended consequences for businesses and job creation. Stupidity reigns supreme with liberal ideology.
  
  

•  
  4

  jdsnaker

  07/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  What frustrates me the most about all of the "carbon offsets", "green movement", "global warming", etc.,etc., etc, people (liberal dems) is that they refuse to even consider another point of view or that they may be wrong!

•  
  5

  adornoe@...

  07/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  What frustrates me the most about all of the "carbon offsets", "green movement", "global warming", etc.,etc., etc, people (liberal dems) is that they refuse to even consider another point of view or that they may be wrong!
  
  I call that mentality, or that way of thinking, as "liberal ideology lock-down" or "liberal ideology prison". When a mind has gone to the point of no open-mindedness, then it's in a mental prison where other ideas are not welcome or allowed to enter. Those are lost causes for the most part.

•  
  6

  JohnMcGrew@...

  07/20/09 | Report as spam

  The "Get out of Hypocrisy" Card

  Buying "carbon credits" to justify business as usual is little different than
  the middle-age practice of buying "indulgences" from the church to
  cleanse you from your sins. There's little real benefit to the environment,
  and those of us who know better have to listen to the sanctimony of those
  who think they've fooled either us, or themselves.

•  
  7

  hoffmann367@...

  07/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  When you get a bunch of so called "experts" who give a Nobel Prize to a person that uses more electricity and water than a small township credibility goes out of the window. He spends money to buy trees to make his footprint smaller but the energy has still been used.
  "Carbon credits" and "carbon trading" in the future are going to cause a greater financial meltdown than the world has ever seen.

•  
  8

  sk.dunnage@...

  07/24/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  The credits that were to be sold are being given away to the Utilities. The entire plan is BS.

•  
  9

  BlazingEagle

  10/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Are we about to see a backlash over carbon credits?

  Being environmentally conscious is a noble goal, But until the ?energy efficient? alternatives are greatly better overall than the environmentally destructive ones, companies will obviously be reluctant if not outright dismissive of these alternatives.
  
  I?m all for environmentally friendly alternatives that are truly environmentally friendly but sometimes in the long run, some of these alternatives also end up being environmentally unfriendly.