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Carbon Offsets: The Defintion
What is carbon dioxide and why does it matter?
It’s the chemical union of one carbon, and two oxygen atoms (hence CO2), mostly appearing as a gas. In fact one of the key gases, along with nitrogen, oxygen, argon and water vapour, that constitute the air we breathe and thus the atmosphere that acts as skin separating us from deep space.
Carbon dioxide makes up about 12 percent of what is known as the greenhouse effect, whereby heat from the sun reflected from the Earth’s surface is effectively bounced back into that atmosphere, rather than escaping into space. This captured warmth makes the planet habitable.
Additionally CO2 is an essential ingredient in photosynthesis—the ability of plants to convert carbon into the sugars, starches and cellulose they use for growing. One tonne of dry wood is roughly equivalent to almost two tonnes of carbon dioxide fixed from the atmosphere.
The problem is that the volume of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has been increasing, greater than our forests, oceans or soils ability to capture it. In January of 2007 the measured atmospheric CO2 concentration was 383 ppm (parts per million). That’s an increase of 99 ppm in the past 175 years, with 78 percent of that increase occurring in just the past 47 years.
Although CO2 does occur naturally, and is vital for our planet’s well being, too much of good thing is, well, not so good. In their Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) observed that we need to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius, above the pre-industrial level— a threshold beyond which catastrophic effects on a global scale become much more likely. To mange this the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases has to be stabilized at about 450 parts per million (ppm), only 67 ppm from where we are now. With greenhouse gas emissions, from the likes of CO2, rising about 2 ppm per year, as are populations and western style energy intensive living, we don’t have much time to bring our excessive carbon emissions under control. According to the IPCC we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 60– 80 percent below current global levels, we need to do it now. Very rapidly. And bearing in mind that horse that has bolted is much harder to reign in, than one already in the stables. Worldwatch Institute has lots more info on carbon dioxide.
What’s this Kyoto Protocol everyone talks about?
It is an agreement ratified by over a 160 countries that they will work towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Each of the signatory countries agreed to meet mandatory reduction targets, averaging about 7% below 1990 levels, by 2012. It was adopted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, as an amendment on the international treaty on climate change. As of December 169 countries had signed on. The two western countries who are yet to sign are the United States and Australia. Nor have Croatia and Kazakhstan. India and China have inked the document, but don’t have binding targets to meet.
As part of the Kyoto Protocol, an arrangement known as the The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows industrialised countries to invest in emission reducing projects in developing countries. This is one of the key platforms of international carbon trading.
Read a copy of the Kyoto Protocol here.
Wikipedia is also a good source for plenty of easily digestible information on Carbon Dioxide, and Kyoto Protocol.
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