Carbon offsets: Sins of Emission

I personally have purchased carbon offsets this year for my vehicle. As the market for these offsets solidifies, my wife and I plan to integrate this into our annual budget (it's not as much as you might think). O Of course, we want to be sure that our money is going to someone who is both reputable and capable of actually reducing carbon emissions.

This is the beginning of what I feel will be the most practical solution to global warming: an open market for emissions trading. This is, of course, not a new idea. Emissions trading markets have been established in this country for quite some time (with the SO2 market being possibly the most successful and widely known). They provide a number of benefits, including economic incentives for reductions, a place for environmentalists to put their money into action, and allows individuals and companies to decide how to best meet their own demands. Of course, caps are generally set by a political process and enforcement is critical. However, there are proven methods for doing this already (under the Clean Air Act, for example).

This is partially what the Kyoto protocol hoped to do, but of course it had some significant (although hardly insurmountable) flaws. Developing nations obviously need to be addressed somehow. However, I feel the technological innovation going on here in the states is what would be to our advantage. If we develop the systems by which the reduction of emissions is best done, then we are in a better position to profit both economically and politically with regards to other nations.