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started on 16/1/2007 13:45
Check this article. Per Defra junior minister Ben Bradshaw, the govt will publish proposals for standards for offsetting schemes to give consumers confidence that their money is being put to good use. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329687103-121526,00.html I recommend watching BBC1’s Inside Out programme (12.1.07, 15 mins) on the web. It examined the Co-op’s tree planting scheme in Uganda and was rather critical. »
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Why in the developed nationswritten on 18/1/2007 11:42
I am not sure why ‘The funds need be applied to where energy wastage and fossil fuel use is most prolific.’ The EU ETS is already bringing pressure on companies in the EU and Miliband wants to extend that to mid sized UK companies. We do need to spread the ideas and the technology to all countries, many of whom have other more pressing short term problems and climate change is just not on the aggenda. » login to post comments
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There was quite balanced
david
There was quite balanced coverage of this on this morning's Today programme. They claimed that only four companies met the "gold standard" criteria 1, which apparently prioritise energy efficiency and renewable energy projects 2. The companies include: pure, equiclimate, global cool and carbon offsets 3 (and notably not climate care).
David Milliband has made a good and timely intervention, emphasising that offsets can provide funding for carbon reduction technology, and not just a conscience salve. However, the four companies operations, and Milliband's focus, remain in the developing world. Considering the huge levels of current and legacy emissions from the EU/US, this seems almost perverse. The funds need be applied to where energy wastage and fossil fuel use is most prolific. Unsurprisingly (but uncomfortably), that place is here in the developed nations, not in far-flung and distant lands. There, is it our ideas and our lifestyles that are rapidly replacing more sustainable indigenous ways of life. If we ask developing nations to apply carbon reduction patches to their Western-inspired development, we should at least be prepared to adopt them here as well.