There is a lot of myths circulating around so let's clear some up...

The Basics

An excess of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere is widely accepted as being the cause of climate change. Carbon Dioxide is a Greenhouse Gas.

This excess is mainly down to the burning of large amounts of fossil fuels (Coal, Oil, Gas, Petrol, Diesel, etc) over a short period of time. There is also a large contribution from Methane gas which is produced from decomposing rubbish.

It is possible to accurately measure how much CO₂ gas an individual or a company produces per year. This amount of gas is know as your Carbon Footprint and it is measured in tonnes.

Carbon Sequestration is the action of removing CO₂ from the Earths atmosphere.

Carbon Offsets or Carbon Offsetting is the term used to describe how much Carbon Sequestration is needed to remove a given amount of CO₂ gas.

1 Carbon Credit is equal to 1 tonne worth of Carbon Offsets.

Carbon Offsets can be used to help you become Carbon Neutral or in other words you can buy Carbon Credits equal to the amount of CO₂ you are responsible for producing. The overall effect of becoming Carbon Neutral is that you or your company contribute no net Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere.

More Advanced

Carbon Sequestration can be performed by many methods.

Manmade methods for example, like capturing the CO₂, compressing it and passing it through or burying it in the earth.

Natural methods however are a little more straightforward. The primary way is by planting vegetation (trees mainly) and letting them absorb the CO₂ which they use to grow.

We know how much a single tree can absorb over its lifetime and therefore we can model the effect of large numbers of trees and their overall absorption ability.

A good guide to Offsetting 1 tonne of CO₂ is to plant between 4 to 6 gum trees in tube form or 2 to 4 gum trees planted using a slightly more established 6" type.

Now as the average Australian household should emit around 14 tonnes per year, and we begin to see that a several trees need to be planted.

So how do Carbon Credits work... Carbon Credits are a tradable commodity; they are traded on their own blossoming stock market. They must be derived from sources which have signed up to a 100 year management plan for the land they are planted on as well as several other regulations set out by the Kyoto agreement.

Do your research is the tip of the day! If you are thinking of buying some specifically to offset your emissions make sure you are happy with their source. Many schemes are offering Carbon Credits which are derived from existing forestry. So your money is not creating more areas of Carbon Sequestration it is simply going into preserving what is already there!

Other schemes revolve around agreeing to put a certain amount of renewable energy back into the electricity grid or reducing land fill.

Ask the seller exactly what you are getting for your money, ask what type of trees are being planted, ask how many will be planted, ask if they are allowed to perform logging within the forest! After all you might end up paying for a state sponsored forestry management program!!

At Emitless we don't offer official Carbon Credits we prefer direct Carbon Offsets.

We work in conjunction with local rural land owners and authorities. We calculate how many trees it will take to offset your emissions. We plant that number of trees and they cannot be sold on in the future. We prefer to do this once we have reduced the emissions at their source, see our consulation page.

One reason we don't offer official Carbon Credits is we are not convinced that Carbon Credits are the right thing for individuals or companies who want to directly increase the amount of Carbon Sequestration in the world. Carbon Credits are a fantastic way to conserve forestry and ensure it remains active, but at this moment in time we have yet to be convinced that buying them will increase the net amount of forestry. Hopefully this will happen when the schemes become a little more established.