What is Carbon Offsetting?

Carbon offsetting can be a hard idea to come round to, but is in reality quite a simple concept. Schemes allow individuals and companies to make a financial contribution to environmentally friendly projects around the world to stabilise their own emissions, be it from travel, day-to-day energy use or material consumption.

What is carbon offsetting?

These may take shape in a variety of forms, including deployment of clean energy technologies, purchasing carbon credits and tearing them up, or planting trees to soak up CO2. Costs usually equate to around £8 per tonne of carbon offset. A flight from London to Sydney would produce around 2.64 tonnes of CO2 per passenger, costing around £22 to offset.

Why is it done?

Carbon offsetting is a simple, effective and cost-efficient way to lessen our negative impact. Several governments offer incentives — the UK provides tax relief on the Climate Change Levy if steps are taken towards reducing emissions. KLM, the Dutch airline, partnered with a Ghanaian enterprise that developed a special coalpot 40% more efficient than traditional ones, resulting in annual savings of around 300,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and curbing deforestation.

Carbon offsetting has evolved from simply planting trees to more innovative solutions that create long-term change. Think about it next time you travel or turn the heating on — there could be a cost-efficient way to reduce your impact on the world.