For anyone concerned about their impact on the environment then reducing your carbon footprint is a worthy goal.  But is it enough?  While it is extremely important we reduce our demand on energy, we need to do more.  We need to make low carbon solutions more affordable in order to drive low carbon solutions.  Because when it is all said and done, with the increasing demands of strong global population growth, low carbon solutions are the only way to a sustainable future!

Here is an idea of how quickly we have created an imbalance of carbon emissions.  Currently, mankind adds about 30 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere every year.  That’s thirty thousand million tonnes.  This has increased from about 2.5 Gigatonnes a year in 1900!  It’s the rapid increase in emissions which is putting our atmospheric system out of balance and causing damaging climate change.  We need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere.

Offsetting and cancelling carbon emission credits
Cancelling carbon credits can provide a meaningful solution and sends a strong signal to governments and stakeholders that you are concerned about the environment.  By voluntarily offsetting carbon credits you can have a direct impact on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But beware, not all carbon credits are the same.  While some credits offer a transparent and verifiable link to the carbon emissions they represent, others propose carbon emissions reduction that is not so easy to distinguish.

Let’s take a look at how a carbon credit works. A carbon credit represents a quantity of carbon dioxide, usually a tonne.  Like a share in the stock market owning a carbon credit gives you a right over carbon dioxide.  Similar to the stock market there are different kinds of carbon credits.  Let’s keep it simple and image there are three kinds of carbon credits.  These are credits created from;

1. extracting carbon from the atmosphere (ie trees),
2. generating alternative energy (ie renewables), and
3. a policy that limits the amount of carbon emitted by industry (ie an Emissions Trading Scheme).

Trees
The first kind of carbon credit, a tree credit, removes the carbon already emitted into the atmosphere.  Depending on the type of trees and their age you need about five of them to breathe a tonne of carbon out of the sky each year.  While we like trees and believe we need more of them, we consider there are some issues with measuring and verifying the carbon credits they represent. For starters they are reactive; the carbon dioxide is already emitted before the tree can sequester it.  Tree plantations also require a long management process to ensure the tree survives and is healthy.

Renewables
Renewable energy credits, usually referred to as certificates or RECs, represent the energy created by non fossil fuel alternatives such as wind, solar, geothermal and wave.  The value of these credits in offsetting is the tonne of carbon dioxide that would otherwise have been emitted if the energy source was a fossil fuel.  Renewable energy is the future and while there are sometimes issues with the additionality of these credits, we totally support renewable energy.  However, we believe there is a more distinct carbon credit in an Emissions Trading Scheme.

Emissions Trading Scheme
In an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) a carbon credit must be used for every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted.  By limiting the number of carbon credits the amount of carbon dioxide is reduced.  The credits can only be used once. As the supply of credits decreases the price generally rises.  An emitter will keep using carbon credits until the cost of using a carbon credit is more than the cost of optimising a process to be more energy efficient or investing a low carbon solution.

One of the most exciting features of an ETS is that you are empowered to speed up this process by buying and cancelling these carbon credits before they are used by an emitter!  If you buy and cancel a carbon credit it is permanently removed from the scheme and can never be used to emit carbon dioxide.

This is why we created Climakind. Climakind only cancels carbon credits in a compliance-regulated ETS.  The credits are easily measured and while the credits in an ETS are limited, cancelling them effectively reduces the number of credits available to emit carbon dioxide.  In a way you help make additional cuts in emissions beyond agreed targets, ie reduce the “cap”.  Buying and cancelling credits through Climakind ensures the carbon dioxide they represent will never be emitted.  See more about how it works.

At the same time your efforts help drive investment in low-carbon solutions because there are fewer credits available and emitters will be incentivised to find alternative means of production.  In the long run, being Climakind helps ensure low-carbon solutions become more economically attractive – and that’s the only way to a sustainable future.

The power in Climakind credits
Through www.climakind.com you cancel genuine carbon credits that are:

• Proactive: the carbon emissions our cancelled credits represent are not released into the atmosphere. We strive to reduce the addition of new carbon to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.  This is quite different from offsetting and carbon neutral schemes that intervene after the carbon has already been released to the atmosphere and then try to sequester the extra carbon, when it is really too late.
• High Quality: It is easy to distinguish the carbon emissions represented by our carbon credits as opposed to other emission reduction units.
• Secure: the transaction is transparent and withstands the scrutiny of market regulators (such as ASIC and ACCC)

Visit www.climakind.com today to see how we can help you and your business cancel genuine carbon credits.

About the Author
Michael is passionate about helping stop damaging climate change, helping individuals and organisations identify and reduce carbon emissions, and helping them position themselves as environmentally concerned and visibly active in reducing greenhouse gases. Michael’s research skills and understanding of carbon financial markets come from years of experience as Head of Emerging Markets Quantitative Strategy with Merrill Lynch. A friendly customer focused attitude is central to Michael’s work philosophy. He has applied this approach to his experience in climate change, finance, information technology and accounting. Michael is focused on excellence while abiding by the highest ethical and moral standards. Michael says, "As with everything I do my approach to climate change is driven by my positive and energetic personality. I will do my best to help educate and provide everyone with the opportunity to help stop damaging climate change –from ‘mums and dads’ to global corporations." Michael received a Master of Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia, a Bachelor of Commerce with Merit from the University of New South Wales.