Earth Equity News

Carbon Offsets a Wild Card as Environmental Markets Converge. By Michael Burnham, Greenwire, July 15, 2009, in-depth. "There are now more than 700 voluntary and compliance-based environmental markets in the United States -- including programs that provide payments for filtering water pollution or offsetting wildlife habitat destruction -- according to Hanson's environmental think tank. Federal legislation that would cap carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases could link such markets and boost their liquidity significantly, policy watchers say. But integrating ecosystem-services markets while reducing global warming could be a tough task for regulators... The House bill, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, is silent on the stacking of ecosystems-services credits but raises a big question: How do you ensure that the carbon offsets are permanent and additional -- that is, above and beyond what would have occurred otherwise -- so as to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions?"