Global Market Scene for Carbon Trading
A company in India switches from coal power to biomass. The CDM board certifies that by doing this, the company has reduced Carbon dioxide emissions by 100,000 tonnes per year. Thus, it is issued 100,000 CER’s (Certified Emission Reductions). Further, under the Kyoto Protocol, the United Kingdom has to reduce its green house gas emissions by 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. If it purchases the 100,000 CER’s from the Indian company, this target reduces from 1 million tonnes/year to 900,000 tonnes per year making the goal easier to achieve.
GOING CARBON NEUTRAL
The challenge of the 21st century will be for human society to regain a healthy
relationship with our 'living' earth. The signs are clear that right now we
are failing in that task. Unless we change our ways, it is likely that comfortable
civilization as we know it will disappear. Climate change is not just an environmental
problem - it is a societal problem. The simple truth is that humanity is changing
the atmosphere - every day we add around 70 million tonnes of invisible carbon
dioxide, the very gas that we know controls the temperature of the planet.
Climate change is a critical threat to the continued existence of our civilization.
The climate change that we are now seeing - also known as global warming -
is caused predominantly by human activities. The largest single factor is
the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the use of fossil fuels. Directly
or indirectly, every activity which uses fossil fuel energy will cause the
generation of CO2 emissions and thus contribute to climate change.
What is Carbon Neutrality?
Carbon neutrality is a simple concept, but the details are complex. The concept
of carbon neutrality is fairly straightforward in theory, but in practice
the details are complex and in some quarters they are controversial. Carbon
neutral means that you have calculated and accounted for all of your carbon
climate change impact; you have investigated reducing your carbon footprint
and you also purchase carbon credits to offset your unavoidable greenhouse
gas emissions (http://www.noco2.com.au/). Carbon neutrality offers individuals,
businesses and other institutions the opportunity to take the personal responsibility
for the global warming implications of their lifestyle. In response to a rapid
increase in public awareness about global warming in the last 12 months, many
corporations are focusing on how they can manage their carbon impacts.
