Carbon Credits -- Greenwashing?

Am curious on folk's thoughts about carbon credits... and whether its sort of a greenwashing thing going on. The FTC has launched an investigation into whether there is much potential for fraud, and I really think there might be....  I've looked at some of the carbon credit companies, and most of them don't tell you what they do with your money. You pay your $10 to offset your emissions, or your airline flight, or whatever, and then it just sort of heads to this black hole and you feel good about yourself. For all we know, these guys are taking private jets to Cabo!

I don't buy carbon credits for this reason; preferring to lower/offset my emissions by planting my own trees, reducing my travel, turning off the lights, etc. 

What does everyone else do?

D

There's absolutely a difference between quality carbon offsets and crap carbon offsets.  You certainly don't want to be supporting fradulent, greenwashed companies or even spending money to "offset" through mandatory projects (if they're mandatory, clearly they have to be built/expanded...you need to think about additionality; as David Roberts wrote in a post from 2006, "Additionality refers to carbon-emission reductions that wouldn't have taken place in a business-as-usual scenario. It's additionality that offset consumers presumably think they're getting for their money -- "X units of carbon were not emitted because I bought this thingy"").

You definitely want to read up on whatever organization you choose.  Take this portfolio report from TerraPass detailing all of their projects.  Overall, I think TerraPass is a solid option for offsets (although I do wish they'd move away from any wind farms in Nebraska given the whole voluntary v. compliance markets issue).

There are definitely better and worse offsets.  In my opinion, the key issue is validation - a respected 3rd-party needs to confirm that the offset projects are sound.  Another important issue is "additionality" - quality offsets come from projects that would not have happened otherwise (they are "additional to" the normal course of business). 

My business (www.ecounit.com) includes offsets as a reward for participation, so I've looked pretty carefully at the various providers.  I like carbonfund.org for a few reasons, one of which is that they're non-profit...more of the dollars I put towards offsets go to the projects themselves.

Anyway, there is definitely potential for abuse in the offset market, but I expect the oversight and transparency will improve dramatically in the next 1-2 years.

I definitely agree with Kragen.  Not all offsets are created equal.  Third party certification is a good thing but not all certification is created equal either. 

We actually have a wiki started about carbon offsets and renewable energy credits but it needs some work.  I've been trying to get Mr. Mjacks3 to add to it because he and Robby started a company selling high quality RECs (and hence they know a lot about it).  Maybe this will finally get them to do it.