Becoming Carbon Neutral: What are We Doing to Control Carbon Emissions?

Is becoming carbon neutral practical?

There is much talk these days amongst environmentalists and other concerned people about becoming "carbon neutral". What does this mean and is it possible? And if so, how do we do it?

This article attempts to give some pointers on these difficult questions.

If you are at all interested in green living and the environment you will already be aware that our energy needs are causing climate change.

Many of the ways that we make and use energy cause carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere.

There it acts as a greenhouse gas, trapping more of the sun's warmth.
This results in global warming and climate change.

Every time we get in our cars, or fire up the central heating system we are each contributing to the problem. So, to become carbon neutral would be a great benefit. (To be carbon neutral just means that you do not contribute any extra carbon to the atmosphere.)

Becoming carbon neutral:

To be carbon neutral means that for every ton of carbon which you are responsible for producing you also lock up an equivalent amount - in a "carbon sink".

A carbon sink is basically a tree! Or any other slow growing green life form...or an ocean.. (yes, I know, that's a bit simplistic!)

Becoming carbon neutral:

A carbon sink is a natural resource which is capable of storing carbon and keeping it out of the atmosphere.

Oceans and forests and other large masses of plant life absorb carbon. To work as a carbon sink for the purposes of reducing the amount of carbon finding its way into the atmosphere, a carbon sink needs to be capable of being enlarged.

We cannot enlarge the oceans but we can plant more trees.

There are also ways being developed of storing carbon in the ground.

To understand how a carbon sink might work, lets review a few facts about the carbon cycle.

Becoming carbon neutral:

Plants lock up carbon as they grow. When they die or are consumed the carbon is released.

You may remember from class the carbon cycle. Trees and other plants take in carbon dioxide during the day and exchange it within their systems. They also emit oxygen - all of which is very good for other living things.

No animal life could exist on earth without this cycle. It has been going on since the first primitive organisms evolved billions of years ago.

Animals are part of the cycle too. They breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Animal wastes such as manure also emit carbon dioxide as they decompose.

This carbon cycle goes on in a grand way across the planet. The crucial thing is that it affects our weather systems. The carbon cycle and the weather systems linked to it are now being disrupted in a major way by our industrial activities - the burning of fossil fuels, (coal, oil, and natural gas) especially. Fossil fuels contain huge amounts of carbon and when they are burned CO2 is released into the atmosphere. This is carbon which has been locked up in the ground for millennia.

The amount of carbon being released has increased dramatically in the last 200 years since the industrial revolution - and it continues to rise and rise.

The net result is global warming and climate change.

If you are interested in learning more about global warming and climate change please see: Global warming - causes and effects

One idea for becoming carbon neutral is that for every amount of carbon that you are responsible for releasing into the atmosphere, an equivalent amount can be locked away by planting trees.

This idea has been given some celebrity highlighting by Chris Martin of Coldplay, who decided to neutralise the carbon from his one of his band's tours by planting trees.

He also worked with his record company to entirely offset the production and distribtion of his recent albums, (X&Y and A Rush of Blood to the Head - some 12 million cds.)

Coldplay planted a forest in Scotland to settle their carbon bill and thereby saved over 16,000 tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. They have also worked hard to communicate the climate change and carbon neutral messages to their fans.

We can all contribute too. You might not be up for planting a whole forest but you could plant more trees to help offset your own carbon footprint.

There are now organisations dedicated to making this a practical solution for anyone who is interested. You buy trees from them which they plant to offset your carbon emissions from your travel or other activities.

Organisations such as CarbonNeutral in the UK will calculate your carbon emissions from, say an air flight. They then sell you the right number of trees to offset your emissions as a traveller, which they will then have planted on your behalf.

A long haul flight half way around the world would cost about 5 trees.

There have been criticisms of some of these schemes. In some, trees have been planted which were then inadequately looked after. Also, trees are sometimes calculated as full-grown in the off-setting calculations. This is misleading because what you are paying for is young saplings which may or may not grow to become large trees in thirty years or more. So, once more it's a case of "caveat emptor" - buyer beware. If you are thinking of buying into one of these schemes it is worth doing some checks to make sure that the company is doing things properly.

There are also environmental organisations which will calculate your carbon footprint for you. (The carbon footprint is a measure of how much carbon dioxide you personally are responsible for emitting into the atmosphere. The calculation is based upon the size of your house, heating methods and your lifestyle.

For links to some of the organisations mentioned please see: Greenfootsteps Links Page

No but it certainly might help some.

The amount of carbon emitted by each one of us in the developed world at the moment - on average - is about 11 metric tons per year.

In the developing world the figures are less stark: nearly 2 tons per person.

However, the amount recommended by environmental bodies as (possibly) being sustainable, is only 2 tons per person per year - and the figures for the developing world are rising steeply.

It is estimated that China will overtake the United States as the top emitter of CO2 within the next twenty-five years. China currently is responsible for about 3.5 billion tons - nearly as much as the whole European Union - while the USA has nearly one quarter of the world's emissions of carbon dioxide - a whopping 6 billion tons.

World wide, these figures add up to some 24 billion metric tons of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels(figure for the year 2000).

So, there's a bit of work to do!

The estimated amount of carbon now being emitted world-wide stands at 33 billion tons, so things are getting worse, not better.

Clearly, planting a few forests is not going to solve the whole problem!

Becoming carbon neutral:

Cutting carbon: The other obvious way that this problem can be tackled is for us to find ways in which the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere can be substantially cut.

If we could return to a situation where we were only releasing, say 2 tons per person worldwide, it might be realistic to then deal with that amount by planting trees every year.

Becoming carbon neutral:But is it possible to get such a huge reduction in our carbon emissions?Here in Britain we are currently using nearly 10 tons per person per year. So for us it would be a huge reduction.

Becoming carbon neutral:

Becoming carbon neutral:

What would cutting back our carbon emissions mean?

We would need to travel less but use public transport a lot more. We would need to use far less fossil fuel in our homes and in industry. We would need to recycle and re-use products far more. We would need to use far more biofuels and renewable energy sources for our power needs. We would have to cut out using petrochemicals in the free and easy way that we do at the moment - no more plastic milk bottles!

As things stand, our carbon emissions are going up year on year not down. And they are growing at their fastest rate ever

Scientists now agree that the world needs to reduce carbon emissions by around 60% or more within the next 3 to 4 decades. This in order just to stabilise global warming at safe levels.

The Kyoto Protocol has developed policies to help the world reduce carbon emissions.

Becoming carbon neutral:

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

In 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, the first Earth Summit took place. The United Nations created the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The counties participating agreed to meet yearly at a conference. The third conference took place in Kyoto, Japan in 1997.

The countries present at this conference undertook to reduce world emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to about 5% below the level of emissions for 1990. (This would represent an overall reduction of 29% as global emissions had already risen from the 1990 level by 1997.)

The Kyoto Protocol, as the agreement was called, came into effect in February 2005 after Russia ratified the agreement. When Russia ratified the agreement the pre-agreed number of complying counties (55%) was reached, and the Kyoto Protocol rolled into action.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries are able to either reduce their carbon emissions by the agreed amount, or trade emissions with other countries which have already reduced emissions to below the agreed levels.

Their spare emissions can be bought by countries which are finding it difficult to reduce emissions enough. This enables individual countries to buy time while, overall the emission rates are falling as agreed.

As ever, the devil is in the detail.

For example, the UK has signed the Kyoto agreement and ratified it. It is attempting to work with the EU to reduce emissions but in fact, since Tony Blair took office in 1997 emissions have increased by 2%. Now environmentalists are pushing for a carbon emissions act to force industry to comply with Kyoto.

Becoming carbon neutral:

What about countries which haven't signed the Kyoto Agreement?

Becoming carbon neutral: Kyoto non-signers

As things stand there are several large industrialised nations which have not signed the Kyoto agreement. The United States of America and Australia were both represented at the Kyoto conference but neither has ratified the agreement.

The US government has stated that it believes that ratifying Kyoto would be economically damaging.

They also disagreed with the policy of allowing emerging economies such as China off the hook: China has the second greatest carbon emissions after the US but because it is classed as a developing economy it was not expected to comply with Kyoto at this stage. India and other developing nations were also exempt.

Becoming carbon neutral: So what is the US doing?

The US government has gathered together a partnership of nations and started its own programme to develop low carbon and no carbon industry.

It remains to be seen how effective these programmes will be. From 1990 to 2000 the US economy has become more carbon efficient (more GDP or wealth generation from each unit of carbon) but their actual emissions have risen by 14%.

Within the US there are individual states and which are creating carbon initiatives, some working with industry to acheive reductions.

Nine states and 194 mayors from US towns and cities, have pledged to put legal limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

California has just passed The Global Warming Solutions Act (September 2006) which will bring California (the 12th largest carbon emissions source) into line with Kyoto.

Congress is also able to pursue a programme of legislation which, in theory, could enable similar reductions to the Kyoto Protocol.

Becoming carbon neutral: What is Australia doing?

The Australian government believes that ratifying the Kyoto agreement would hurt their countries employment prospects because of fiercer competition from developing nations who do not (yet) have to rein in their carbon emissions.

There is a national scheme for carbon trading (NETS) which may help Australia to come into the Kyoto process in the future. The Australian Labor Party is keen to comply.

Becoming carbon neutral:

What about the governments that signed the Kyoto agreement? How are they doing?

Kyoto signing countries

The European Union members states all ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002. The EU agreeed to exceed the Kyoto agreement by reducing emissions to levels 8% below those of 1990. They are on course to deliver more than 4% below 1990 by 2008.

The EU has also established an emissions trading system for six major industies, including energy, cement and steel. There is also a system of fines for countries which fail to meet the Kyoto standards.

Things are not perfect however: in summer 2006 Germany, a leading EU member, exempted its coal industry from complying with Kyoto.

The Canadian government has been keen to comply with Kyoto, despite protests from some business and industry leaders.

China as one of the world's heaviest carbon polluters, believes that targets should reflect population. China has relatively low emissions when the counting is done on a per capita basis. As a developing country they are not expected to comply with Kyoto yet.

Russia has at the moment no problem in meeting the Kyoto targets: this is largely because the economy has taken a downturn since the disbanding of the Soviet Union.

Russia and other former memnbers of the Soviet Union may be in a position to offer carbon trades with other industrialised nations.

India as a developing nation does not yet have to comply.

Most African nations produce less than 0.1% of the world's carbon emissions. South Africa, however, has a level of emissions like that of a small European state.

Becoming carbon neutral:

Some other facts about carbon reduction

Switzerland, followed by Sweden has the world's most carbon efficient economy. I.e. the Swiss generate the most wealth for each unit of carbon used.

Many countries world wide are trying different ways to reduce carbon emissions.

There are also schemes to promote "Convergence and Contraction" in the pipeline. This should mean that Kyoto is not seen as make or break; countries which have had unresolved issues with the Kyoto Protocol will be encouraged to participate in their own ways and eventually dove-tail their activities with those of the Kyoto countries.

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