UK Carbon Credit Offsetting Explained

Carbon credit is a new currency that allows companies and individuals to offset their carbon emissions by reducing the carbon dioxide output into the atmosphere elseware. Each carbon credit is worth one tonne of carbon dioxide saved from entering into the atmosphere.

Some companies in the UK are legally obliged to meet carbon emission restrictions, and it is likely in time that more business and individuals will be accountable for their pollution as well. Someone is considered "carbon neutral" when they are not impacting the environment with carbon emissions. Projects that create carbon credits include providing new sources of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency to reduce demand from fossil fuels or other non renewable sources.

Many types of activities can generate carbon offsets. Renewable energy such as the wind farms, installations of solar panels, small hydro turbines, geothermal energy, and biomass energy can all create carbon offsets by displacing fossil fuels. Other types of offsets available for sale on the market include those resulting from energy efficiency projects, methane capture from landfills or livestock, carbon sequestration projects (such as reforestation) that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In modern life, it is almost impossible to be completely carbon neutral - watching television, cooking food, even using a telephone, all directly or indirectly produce carbon emissions (in UK, half of the emissions produced are generated by industry rather than directly from personal activity). Offsetting has a part to play in addressing this. However, it should be considered as the final part once the more traditional route or reduce, reuse and recycle have been exhausted. Offsetting can supplement other efforts and provide short term means of reducing the impact of carbon emissions. By putting a price to the environmental impact of our activities, it also helps build an appreciation of the scale of that impact.