Carbon Credits
Carbon credits are universally accepted units of
measurement that are traded to offset an
individual’s or business’s carbon footprint created
by that entity’s accumulated carbon dioxide emissions.
The average American produces about 20 tonnes per year (22 American tons) of Carbon Dioxide per year.
Carbon footprint = 22 American Tons per year
Average carbon credit offsets required to be carbon neutral: 200 units (1,000 trees).
Calculation:
1000 trees each absorb about 50 pounds of carbon dioxide per year!
Example:
1000 trees X 50 pounds CO2 per year
= 50,000 pounds CO2 per year/2,000 pounds
= 25 American tons CO2 per year
How can Emissions be Offset?
The concept of carbon
sequestration is
quite simple. Whether you consider geological, oceanic or biological
carbon sequestration they all involve removing carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere and storing it in a "sink".
A sink, in this
instance, can be described as a physical state or geological location in which the carbon
dioxide can have no "greenhouse" effect in the atmosphere.
The Green Horizons Conservation Group operates carbon sequestration
projects involving land use, land use change and forestry.
The principle behind storing carbon is based on the fact that plants
use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as building blocks for cellular
growth. Tree biomass, when dry, is made up of approx. 50% carbon. Thus
if an area of forest is planted and a respective increase in tree
biomass is measured, carbon will have been stored, or sequestered, in
that area.
Furthermore due to natural processes associated with cycles of tree
growth and the physical processes that trees undergo, carbon will be
stored in the soils and organic litter that surround the forest.
This "above ground" and "below ground" increase in carbon storage has
been the subject of extensive study over the last 20 years, it has been
found that it is measurable and more importantly region and species
specific. Some of the interesting results that have come from research
have shown that generally tropical forests exhibit the fastest
accumulation of "carbon stocks" during growth of relatively new
forests.
Learn more about your
carbon footprint...
