 Society’s excessive use of carbon is finally catching up. People are now focusing on carbon footprints to keep track of their carbon usage. The concept of not using carbon is unlikely. Instead, the best idea is to become carbon neutral. Carbon neutrality means eliminating your carbon emissions where possible and offsetting your unavoidable carbon emissions with actions that do not add carbon dioxide to the environment.
Extra efforts to use local green products, plant trees, ride bikes, and use carbon credits help us to become carbon neutral. Becoming carbon neutral is also referred to as having a net-zero carbon footprint. It is necessary to balance a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount of carbon offset.
Many individuals also include other greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide in their attempts to become carbon neutral. There are various details involved with becoming carbon neutral. Some choose to only offset unavoidable emissions. This can refer to the practice of balancing carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere. Instead of using fossil fuels they turn to renewable energy, using things such as solar energy, thermal energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy. These things are considered to be clean and renewable energies.
Other individuals turn to carbon offsetting instead. Carbon offsets are instruments that are used to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One carbon credit is equal to one ton of carbon usage. They represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases.
Carbon offsets are in two different markets, the compliance market and the voluntary market. In the large commercial compliance market, carbon offsets are purchased which comply with caps on carbon dioxide emissions. In 2006, about $5.5 billion dollars of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market. This represents about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2 reductions.
In the smaller voluntary market, individuals, companies, and others such as non-profits, purchase carbon credits and offsets because of their determination to lower their own greenhouse emissions. The emissions they focus on lowering are most often transportation and electricity usage. In 2006, about $91 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, representing about 24 million metric tons of CO2 reductions.
There are common features to carbon offsets: vintage, source, and certification regime. Vintage refers to the year in which the carbon reduction takes place, while the source refers to the project or technology used in offsetting the carbon emissions. The certification regime describes rules and regulations that are in correlation to carbon offsets.
The two ways to become carbon neutral - by neutralizing the use of carbon with renewable energy or using carbon offsets - are chosen based on the unique needs of individuals and companies. At times it is possible to do both, or one and then the other. Carbon neutrality is a personal decision that takes time and research.
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