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Don't Just Offset Your Carbon Emissions, Retire Them!

Don't just move carbon around, put it to bed.

Matt McDermott

By Matt McDermott
Brooklyn, NY, USA | Tue Oct 20, 2009 01:00 PM ET

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Want an alternative to using a traditional carbon offset company when you next try to mitigate a small bit of your eco-impact? Why not retire your carbon instead?

Carbon Retirement is a UK-based company that rather than sponsoring projects that in some way reduce emissions, they buy carbon allowances out of the EU Emission Trading Scheme and then retire it -- permanently removing it from the market so that polluting industries have that many fewer right-to-pollute permits available to them.

Carbon Retirement touts their service as 1) accurate, due to the simplicity of auditing the trading scheme, in comparison to carbon offset services; 2) you are really making a difference, as you are reducing the amount of polluting permits available; 3) you are promoting efficiency in European industry.

OK, so that last one might not be so attractive if you've got a nationalist streak in you and live outside the EU, but ultimately energy efficiency in one place benefits us all.

Like traditional carbon offset service, you can retire the emissions from your flights, driving, house, or a known amount of carbon from other sources.

More info: Carbon Retirement

Carbon Offsets
Confused Which Carbon Offset Service to Use? EDF Lists Eleven They Trust
So What's Wrong With Carbon Offsets As Indulgences?
The David Suzuki Foundation and Pembina Institute Publish a Ranking of Carbon Offset Companies

 
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