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Every government agency, every business, every college and every individual daily contributes to climate change. We turn up the thermostat, turn on the lights, jump in our car and thereby add to the carbon burden in the atmosphere. But since we only have one atmosphere, a ton of carbon emitted in New York City, Paris or Shanghai has the same impact on the climate as a ton emitted in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Given the fact that fossil fuels power our life, there is only so much we can do to avoid or reduce carbon emissions: We can reduce our footprint, but we can't yet eliminate it. What's to be done?
- We can act to stem and even reverse climate change by the small and large lifestyle changes we make in our places of business, at home or on the road.
- We can encourage energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources for electricity, heating (and cooling) systems and transportation wherever possible. One way to do this has been to encourage investment in projects that reduce or avoid the emission of carbon into the atmosphere, now commonly known as carbon offsets. Because the value of reducing carbon emissions is recognized around the world, projects that produce offsets that are truly additional -the carbon reductions would not have happened without implementing the project-have a value recognized in monetary terms, allowing companies to buy and sell carbon offsets.
There are a wide variety of projects being offered-high and low tech, in the developed and developing world, touching every energy source. However, there is no guarantee of ethical standards or quality control without oversight and buyer diligence. Because of this, the carbon-offset market has become problematic, with one reporter calling the process a "penance for sins." COA students, too, have questioned the value of offsets. With this in mind, College of the Atlantic carefully researched offset providers and their projects before choosing an investment that would offset our carbon emissions.
We considered the evaluation of offset providers made by Clean Air-Cool Planet's Consumer's Guide to Offset Providers. We also undertook our own survey, ruling out forestry projects that claim to keep carbon out of the atmosphere by forest protection, the process known as carbon sequestration. Though popular, COA finds that there is too great a potential for the carbon to be lost to fire, wind or insect damage, or for neighboring forests to suffer more intensive timber harvesting to make up for the loss of harvestable fiber in the area protected by offsets.
After examining five potential offset providers, COA chose one of the top-ranked providers in Clean Air-Cool Planet's Consumer's Guide, The Climate Trust, based in Portland, Oregon. The nonprofit Climate Trust is involved in policy development in the offset arena, provides consulting services and offers a variety of offset products scaled to various needs. We were particularly impressed with the way Climate Trust solicits offset proposals and then evaluates them against a set of criteria that ensures that projects will be cost-effective, additional (reducing carbon emissions above and beyond regulatory requirements) and lead to quantifiable and verifiable reductions.
Of Climate Trust's current endeavors, COA chose the Traffic Signals Optimization project in Portland, Oregon. Not only will it reduce the carbon emissions from Portland's traffic, the knowledge gained will be transferable to other cities across the country.
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