Saturday, January 16, 2010

Going Green With Carbon Credits

By Radney Fisher

The dangerous levels of harmful greenhouse gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere has led to global anxiety about the highly devastating effects they have on the environment. Instruments like carbon credits and carbon offset were devised in order to improve the scenario by incentivizing companies which are more environment friendly in the way they conduct their operations.

The concept of carbon credits was developed recently. A single carbon credit permits one tonne of carbon dioxide or an equal amount of other greenhouse gases to be discharged in the atmosphere. The overall amount of emissions throughout the world can be controlled through the carbon trading system in which carbon credits can be sold and bought.

Every company is provided with an allowance of carbon credits, which regulates the extent to which it can release carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. Organizations resort to carbon trading when their emissions go beyond their allotted carbon credits in order to purchase credits due to a legal compulsion. They buy them from organisations with lesser emissions having extra carbon credits.

As a consequence, the global carbon emissions stay within prescribed levels, and the firms resort to ecologically sustainable means of conducting business so that their emissions are lesser and they are saved from making additional expense on carbon credits. The method also incentivizes green firms and encourages them to adopt greener means in order to enhance their profits through sale of their carbon credits in the international market.

Carbon credits can be purchased just as any other product because they are sold in a free market and there are various agencies that engage in this trade. In fact, even if you are not representing a firm, you can opt to purchase carbon credits so as to lower your carbon footprint. The money that you invest in this way is channelized towards funding green projects at any location on the planet so that the emissions made because of your actions can be nullified.

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