The System Of Carbon Offsetting
Carbon offsetting focuses on compensating for greenhouse gas emissions caused with or without the knowledge of individuals and companies. In this arrangement, when your actions emit the pollutants, you adopt measures to control emissions some where else in the world to negate the effects of your actions. This way the total emissions throughout the globe will stay within permitted limits, which will reduce the harm to the environment.
One way to engage in carbon offsetting is to participate in community programmes to clean up the environment, planting many trees in your area, or doing any activity that will effectively lower emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Individual initiative is not always practical, and therefore the carbon offset system was devised, in which persons who believe themselves to be guilty of polluting the environment can give money to a company to make up for the damage done to the atmosphere. That company then donates the funds in ecological projects running anywhere on the planet.
Administrations and industries are the major players in the carbon offsetting system and first world countries normally pay developing countries for lowering overall emissions, in what is known as the Clean Development Mechanism, under the Kyoto Protocol.
Critics of carbon offset argue that it fails to deal with the fundamental problem of harm that is being done by you. In both carbon trading and carbon offsetting, you just make a monetary compensation for your harm done to the environment without actually stopping it.
But the people who recommend these systems claim that in carbon trading, financial benefits are more than enough to encourage companies to look for an environment friendly approach in conducting their business. Likewise, carbon offset helps an individual to build his identity as an eco friendly person and raise awareness about the requirement of protecting the environment. Many celebrities have opted for carbon offset and this has driven other people towards it. The efficacy of the system is evident in its rapid growth over the last decade and a majority of people now acknowledge the great potential that it holds.
Learn more about carbon offset and carbon trading and get a deeper understanding on how you can help in saving the environment.
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