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fredag 29 januari 2010

Why Buy Carbon Offset And How To Go About It

By Jennifer Bennett

With growing knowledge of the dangers of global warming, instruments like carbon credits and carbon offset are turning increasingly popular with individuals and companies as a successful means to safeguard our environment.

If you want to offset the adverse influence of your actions on nature, then you can buy an amount of carbon offset, which is equivalent to your carbon footprint. The money you invest on a carbon offset will help fund green undertakings like wind farms that produce energy without resulting in dangerous emissions.

Before going for carbon offset, you must first look at your daily actions that are responsible for emissions of greenhouse gases. Among our daily actions that lead to carbon emissions, the main are driving, flying in airplanes and making use of home appliances that cause high electricity consumption.

After you have listed out all these actions that cause emissions, you must earnestly attempt to lessen some of them and get rid of some altogether. Such an action oriented approach would lower the unfavourable effects that you bring on the planet. You can lower your energy consumption by using low energy lighting, by driving only as much as necessary and also by fitting proper insulation to save energy while using heating or air conditioning appliances.

After you have considered all the aspects where you can act successfully towards reducing emissions, you must calculate the influence of your remaining activities on the environment, i.e., calculate your remaining carbon footprint. Most actions have their own specific method of emission calculation, but you can get many good calculators online that will help you in this respect.

The offset purchased by you is utilized by offset providers to make up for the carbon emissions from your actions by lowering emissions in any part of the earth. You can invest in one of the environmental initiatives offered by the offset providers, and each initiative has its own method of emission reduction. But you must be careful before investing in a project. You should only put your money in well-known and authentic projects to avoid the risk of the funds being misused. Schemes that have passed quality tests conducted by genuine accrediting bureaus are the best ones to put money in, as they have the stamp of approval and can be relied upon.

Finally, you should equip yourself with adequate knowledge on the subject. It will help you find out who the most reputed offset providers are, what type of schemes are most appropriate for an investment, and how to monitor the progress of the project that you have invested in.

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