Title: Offsetting Climate Effects of Flights on Behalf of the EEA
1Carbon Credits Selling of Indulgences or step
towards sustainability?
EEA Staff Seminar 5 September 2006,10 11.30
h Kongens Nytorv 28 Room 28.1.1
2Offsetting climate effects of flights on behalf
of the EEA
- Next steps for implementing a carbon credit
scheme in the EEA
EMAS travel and accomodation project Burkhard
Huckestein
3What do Rock n Roll, football, and big business
have in common?
- List of carbon credit purchasers includes
- Rockbands like the Rolling Stones, Coldplay etc.
- Sports events like the FIFA Worldcup 2006
- World Bank and some private banks
- Big car and oil companies
- Corporate titans like Motorola, DuPont etc.
- Paramount Pictures
- Film stars, artists, politicians
- Policy like British Government
4Carbon credits are a marketing gimmick, but
- they are environmentally useful if
- the provider of carbon credits is reliable
- the offsetting projects are useful
- the climate impacts are properly calculated
- there is an external monitoring of projects
- ...
5This carbon offset scheme for travellers has
really taken off!
6Offsetting strategies of carbon credit providers
- Afforestation
- Eco-efficiency
- Renewable energy
- Emission rights (EU ETS)
- Clean Development Mechanism
- Strategy mix
- ...
7Designing a carbon credit scheme for the EEA
8Next steps for the EMAS travel team and the EEA
- Evaluate options for buying carbon credits
- Identify carbon credit providers
- Defining requirements for carbon credit schemes
- Call for tender among carbon credit providers
- Calculate climate effects of all EEA flights in
2006 - Buy carbon offsets
- Communicate the EEA carbon credit policy to
encourage followers
9- Evaluate options for buying carbon credits
- Buying allowances from the EU ETS
- EU bodies should apply to EU schemes
- - No environmental impact due to too many
allowances in the first ETS trading period
(until 2007) - Buying carbon credits from a provider
- high probability of environmental benefits
- - administrative effort (call for tender, etc.)
Conclusion For 2006 and 2007 buying carbon
credits is the better option, if provider meet
environmental and administrative requirements
10- Identify carbon credit providers
- List of more than 20 provider of carbon offsets
- Atmosfair (Germany)
- Climate Care (UK)
- Carbon Fund
- Climate Friendly
- Greenseat
- My Climate
- The Carbon Neutral Company
- CO2 Balance
- ...
11- Defining requirements for carbon credit providers
- Environmental criteria
- Proper description of offsetting projects
- Additionality and perpetuality of carbon
reduction - Transparent scientific assessment of impacts
- Effective implementation and monitoring
- Administrative criteria
- Transparent accounting (e.g. Annual Financial
statements) - Low share of overhead costs
- Representative steering committee (incl. NGOs)
- Effective administration (incl. customers
relation and marketing)
12- Call for tender among carbon credit providers
- Are the CO2-reductions of offsetting projects
evaluated and monitored (e.g. CBA)? - Are climate impacts beyond CO2 taken into
account? - Are there environmental side effects?
- Are there social and economic side effects?
- Are there enough projects?
- Where does the CO2-reduction occure (within or
outside EU)? - What is the price per CO2-equivalent?
13- Calculate climate effects of all EEA flights in
2006
- Get a list of city pairs for flights by our
travel agency - Calculate CO2-emissions by average fuel
consumption of aeroplanes - Model average climate contribution beyond CO2
(e.g. Radiative forcing)
14- Communicate the EEA carbon credit policy
- Communicate our carbon credit scheme
- Make transparent our selection process
- Define and communicate quality standards for
carbon offset projects - Bring forward an eco-label for carbon offset
provider
15Thank you for your attention!