Earth Equity News

Why Offset Emissions When You Can Retire Them? By Michael Szabo, Reuters, July 22, 2008. "At the age of 25, Dan Lewer is going into retirement -- carbon emissions retirement that is. Lewer is co-founder of a new online carbon offset company called Carbon Retirement, which launched on July 15. Carbon Retirement offers consumers and companies a novel approach to offsetting their carbon footprint by letting them dip into the E.U.'s Emissions Trading Scheme... Now in its second phase running from 2008-2012, the [ETS] sets an emissions cap for its heavy industry and allocates a fixed number of permits... each allowing the bearer to pollute or trade the equivalent of one tonne of CO2. While traditional offset vendors sell verified emission reduction credits generated by clean energy projects like hydro dams and wind farms, often in developing countries, Carbon Retirement buys and 'retires' EU permits on behalf of its clients. By retiring the [permits,] Carbon Retirement removes them from the market, rendering them unusable by the heavy-polluting companies."