As more and more people want to take action to help solve the climate crisis, and with governments lagging behind public opinion in establishing mandatory reduction targets, the idea of carbon offsets has caught on as a way that individuals and organizations can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate use of more renewable energy. Despite some recent confusing publicity, offsets are real, viable, and important as a way to reduce one's climate impact - as long as they are done right. If you assess the options and buy good offsets from one of the organizations offering them you will be investing in important solutions to the climate crisis as well as demonstrating to your colleagues and leaders that together we can halt global warming. But it is important to check out our tips so that you'll be savvy enough to be able to choose offsets that make a difference.

Offsets are terrific as part of an integrated program to neutralize the parts of your carbon footprint that you can't reduce yourself. First improve efficiency, both at home and in your travel. Second, use renewable energy for power and fuel where possible. Finally, invest in offsets to reduce the impact of your remaining global warming pollution to complete the journey toward carbon neutrality.

When you purchase a quality carbon offset you are paying for an activity that will directly reduce global warming pollution in an amount equal to the emissions for which you were responsible. In most cases this reduction arises from either increased use of renewable energy or tree planting - activities being made possible through the revenue provided by you. The self-imposed rules governing many offset firms' operations ensure that the offset represents a reduction in global warming pollution that would not have occurred otherwise, a concept referred to as 'additionality'. This is certainly something that you, as a potential purchaser of offsets, will want to ensure: that your purchase makes a difference in the amount of CO2 or other global warming pollution (usually methane) entering the atmosphere. Otherwise, why bother? For further guidance on purchasing offsets with confidence, see A Consumer's Guide to Retail Carbon Offsets [PDF]. So, the important message to remember when buying carbon offsets is: make sure the offset you're purchasing is truly an offset. Check out the tips on this page to help you understand what is being offered by offset retailers. They will help you make an informed decision when you're ready to offset the rest of your footprint. Don't forget to first take action to reduce what you can and demand the same from your leaders.

When you go to a website to consider buying offsets, these are some of the questions to keep in mind. You should be able to answer most, if not all, of these questions.

  • Can you tell what types of projects the retailer is investing in (transparency)?
  • Can you identify specific project or projects that are creating or will create the offsets that you buy?
  • Do they use a standard against which the additionality and quality of the offsets are measured? Or, can the provider prove the project/s would not have happened or will not happen without the sale of offsets?
  • Do they tell you how they make sure that your offsets are not sold to other buyers as well? This is sometimes referred to as "retiring" the offsets and ensures that the emissions reductions are not double counted.
  • Does the offset provider do anything to help directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in addition to selling offsets? These might include educating the public about ways to directly reduce emissions and implementing their own company and employee reduction programs.
  • Who owns and/or operates the projects? Can you follow the money so you know where it goes and how it will be used? If there are many middle-men, you may be paying more than you need to for the offsets.
  • Can you be sure that the GHG emissions reductions are permanent? For example, for reforestation offsets, do they say how they address the risk of forest fires in determining how much carbon is offset by the project?

Clean Air - Cool Planet contributed to this story.