After a few intense weeks of grad school final projects and exams, I am back in action! There has been so much news regarding climate change in the weeks since I last wrote, but I want to focus these next three entries on an innovative concept that has been around for a while: carbon offsetting.

• Carbon offset: A form of certification or credit that an individual or company purchases to mitigate their CO2 emissions.
• Carbon-neutral: Describes a net-zero carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere, brought about by the purchase of offsets. (The Vatican, by the way, is the first country to declare itself carbon neutral for the 2007 year)
• Emissions trading: A business-based, structured process whereby companies and industries buy emissions credits if their CO2 outputs exceed a certain level.

The concept of carbon offsetting for personal emissions has its roots in emissions trading, which was developed to hold industries accountable for excessive harmful emissions. While I assumed that this concept grew around the need to mitigate global warming emissions, the most well-established emissions trading structure in the U.S. was initiated in 1990, when acid rain concerns were at their height– companies purchased credits for any SO2 emissions instead of CO2 emissions.

The key concept in both emissions trading and carbon offsetting is that the money spent on credits, or “offsets”, is applied toward programs that remove CO2 from the atmosphere, thereby neutralizing the output of a power plant or, say, your next cross-country road trip.

Carbon offset vendors are quick to clarify that purchasing carbon offsets for things like plane and car travel is not as effective as reducing your miles spent on the road or in the air. Also, there have been plenty of ineffective carbon offset programs initiated in the past, so a number of organizations have sprung up that evaluate offsetting programs, determining whether or not these programs truly help mitigate CO2 emissions.

In my next two posts, I will investigate some effective carbon offset schemes as well as recommend websites to explore if you are interested in purchasing carbon offsets for your own travels or daily activities.