In recent years there has been a proliferation of companies worldwide that will sell you carbon credits.  But what do they do? Where does your money go? Is this not just a scheme for companies to make money out of our eco-guilt?
 
The theory behind these credits is sound. You buy a carbon credit, and the money you spend goes to a scheme that reduces CO2 emissions. It is essentially a way to channel finance towards the development of green technology, making it a sound investment and therefore encouraging and accelerating its uptake. Examples of projects can include methane capture projects (methane is 32 times more powerful than CO2 in terms of global warming), efficient and safer wood burning stoves in the developing countries (reducing CO2 emissions and preventing respiratory problems – a huge killer in the developing world) and even the manufacture of environmentally friendly cement in Ireland.
 
There has been some bad press though, and the industry has more than its fair share of cowboys. The world famous band, Coldplay, bought carbon credits to offset the CO2 released in the making of one of their albums. The plan was to finance mango trees plantations in Bangladesh: The mango trees would absorb CO2, the local community would profit from selling the mangoes and everyone was going to be happy. Unfortunately, the band bought the credits from the wrong organisation and the trees were never planted. So how can you avoid these schemes when purchasing carbon credits?
The answer is third party certification and validation. There are a variety of certifications available for credits but according to separate studies by The Financial Times and The Economist only two stand up to scrutiny: The Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Gold Standard. Both these standards require that the project wishing to attain validation prove that they will deliver real and measurable reductions in CO2, and they have to be independently validated.
 
Validation is not the only important factor when buying credits. If you want to lose weight, the cheeseburger and large fries won’t be offset by a diet coke. Before purchasing your carbon credits, look at all the changes you can make to reduce your carbon footprint. For example, by turning appliances, such as TVs, videos, computers and microwaves, off rather than leaving them on standby, you can save an average of €30 per household per annum or €40m nationally, with annual savings of 186,000 tonnes CO2.
 
Offsetting with carbon credits is commendable and, provided you invest in validated and verified projects, will help in reducing CO2 emissions.