What are carbon credits anyway? No political jabs, only serious answers please.?

Question

My understanding is that people such as Al Gore who have multiple mansions, fly around in private jets to lecture everyone else about conservation, and use more energy than an average 100 people easily, actually believe that they can pay money to offset the energy that they use. He actually says that he can use all of this energy and be "carbon neutral"

The question comes in what that money is actually used for. I mean, we all know that he owns part of the company so some of it goes back to him, but WHAT DO THEY DO? What is it that the carbon credits are actually supposed to accomplish?

The only effect I see is that the rich people who are screaming about global warming can enjoy whatever lifestyle they want, while promoting Gore's movie, and while screaming that we shouldn't, and they get to have a clear conscience.

Answer 1

I agree with you 100%

Carbon credits do nothing to reduce emissions. They are just a way for rich people to assuage their liberal guilt. Trouble is that poor people can't afford to do that.

The idea is that the money will be used to support research and development of cleaner technologies. But of course paying money while you spew out tons of CO2 and telling OTHER people not to spew out all that CO2 is like a rich person killing a person that they don't like and then paying money to the family to avoid going to jail. The money does not bring back the dead and the carbon credit does not reduce carbon emissions.

Answer 2

I will not actually place a political "jab" about this, but there is no way to explain carbon credits without the term "crock of c**p" being used somewhere in the information.  

If you don't see that in one form or the other in any of the other answers, pleaes feel free to disregard those answers.

Answer 3

Carbon credits are something to buy to offset your CO2 emissions, buying them mostly means the person who sells them promises to plant a number of trees depending on how many you bought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cred...

Now that I answered the question let me comment, they are a scam.  It takes years for a tree to actually take in that amount of CO2.  Most of the trees don't make it anyway, they are cut down, lost in forest fires, or die of disease before maturing.  There is no way to monitor your credits, you really don't even know if the trees are ever planted.  The idea of carbon offsetting is a scam for people like Al Gore.  They tell everyone to live simply but they themselves don't, with carbon offsets they can claim that their lifestyle is supported and that they live just as simply as you.

Answer 4

Engineer is completely right.  Give him the points.  Briefly,

They're a way to reduce CO2 in the cheapest way possible.  Factories who can reduce it more than they need to, do that, and sell the carbon credits to factories who would find it very expensive to reduce CO2.

Unlike his critics, Al Gore has no illusions that his personal life makes any significant difference.  He uses carbon credits to advertise the idea, which is a good one.

Answer 5

All carbon credits are permits allowing you to emit carbon dioxide. One ton per credit.

Carbon credits come in several forms. There is the tree planting type mentioned earlier. The idea being that growing a tree will remove so many tons of carbon from the air.

There are the government issued type. In that case each country establishes that there will be a certain number of carbon credits to be issued each year. That number will decrease each year according to the carbon reduction goals established, for instance by the Kyoto Protocol. Those annual credits are issued to all the business in the country and that establishes how much CO2 each company is allowed to emit. If they can reduce their emissions below the number of credits they are given they are allowed to sell those extra credits. Businesses that cannot stay within their number of credits are allowed to buy credits.

A third type of credit system is associated with the installation of renewable energy. If you install for instance a solar system then you would be allowed to sell credits equal to the number of tons of CO2 your system has avoided.

In all cases the purchasing of carbon credits goes towards financing activities that remove, reduce or avoid CO2 emissions. The idea is to create a financial incentive that will harness free market forces to foster innovations that will reduce carbon emissions.

Al Gore by buying carbon credits has basically paid someone else to reduce their CO2 emissions resulting in a net reduction in CO2 emissions.

It is one way to implement regulations. Alternatives would be a carbon tax where CO2 emissions are taxed. Another alternative would be mandated CO2 reduction regulations where violators would be fined. Yet another option would be to ban the use of certain wasteful or heavily emitting technologies. For instance Australia has banned the use of incandescent light bulbs. You will not be able to buy and use them there after 2012. A related example is the moratorium on coal fired power plants that is under discussion in the United States.

Of these various regulatory schemes the carbon trading option is one of the least intrusive and one that perhaps best harnesses the power of the free market to discover and implement solutions to problems that offer financial benefit.

Answer 6

Carbon credits are measured in units of certified emission reductions (CERs). Each CER is equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide reduction. Developed countries that have exceeded the levels can either cut down emissions, or borrow or buy carbon credits from developing countries.