Why offsets make a difference to climate change and how to use them responsibly

Introduction

Global climate change is one of the biggest environmental issues facing society today. Its impacts, including droughts, heavy rainfall and extreme flooding, are already being felt.

The use of verified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings to offset the emissions associated with activities such as manufacturing, flying and driving our children to school provides valuable help in support of green energy and social projects.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

In the first instance we must always try to directly reduce and avoid the GHG emissions associated with our activities. There are many opportunities available to reduce emissions including:

• Changing our behaviour. There are many small changes in behaviour that can result in a notable reduction in our impact on global climate change. These include: turning off electrical equipment in particular computers and televisions; turning down central heating by a degree or two; walking/ using public transport instead of taking the bus; using the stairs instead of the lift.
• Technologies. There are also a variety of technical solutions that can ensure a more efficient utilisation of energy. These range from A-rated white goods such as fridges and washing machines through to energy efficient light bulbs and a variety of manufacturing solutions, for example, waste heat recovery.
• Low carbon energy and materials. We can also choose to use low carbon energy sources such as electricity generated by wind and water. There are also an increasing number of low carbon products entering the market. For example, recycled glass, paper and building materials.

Going further

Many people, businesses and other organisations find that opportunities to directly reduce their GHG emissions are limited. Typically, when an organisation first begins to consider what options it has available it may find that it is able to reduce emissions by between 5% and 50%. Thereafter, it may be able to make ongoing savings in the order of 1% - 5% each year.

More significant reductions in emissions become impossible for a number of reasons. In particular, low carbon options may be unavailable, impractical or simply too expensive.