| Carbon Trading Basics | | | | we purchase these credits we are essentially |
| Driving a Sport Utility Vehicle for one year | | | | funding activities that will generate clean energy, |
| generates five metric tons of carbon dioxide. | | | | or consume or harness carbon dioxide. The cost |
| Planting one pine tree will consume four of those | | | | to offset driving the SUV for one year is |
| metric tons over the course of its lifetime. What | | | | approximately $70. |
| is an SUV driver, who wants a carbon neutral | | | | Who May Generate Carbon Credits? |
| footprint, to do if he lives in a city condo and can't | | | | Line-dry your laundry, paint your roof white, rack |
| plant a tree? The answer may be to purchase | | | | up those credits and start selling them - well, not |
| carbon emission credits. | | | | quite so fast. No doubt those things are beneficial |
| A Shared Planet | | | | for the environment, but their exact value is |
| Generating carbon emissions and carbon credits | | | | difficult to quantify. For now the generation of |
| need not happen in the same geographic region. | | | | carbon credits is limited to those who can: 1) |
| Coal burning plants, generating carbon emissions in | | | | Document the precise savings of an energy |
| China, can be balanced by wind turbines, | | | | project; 2) Have his claim independently verified |
| generating clean fuel credits in Minnesota. Both | | | | by a qualified third party; 3) Submit his verified |
| impact the planet, making carbon trading a global | | | | results to a governing authority. |
| affair. | | | | Governing authorities must be able to issue |
| The Future of Carbon Trading | | | | legitimate, counterfeit proof, serialized certificates, |
| The carbon credit market currently sells carbon | | | | which can be sold only once and must be legally |
| emission credits for approximately two dollars | | | | canceled after that. The United Nations |
| each and generates approximately $70 billion | | | | Framework Convention on Climate Change is |
| annually. The market is still in its infancy, according | | | | working to standardize these procedures, but until |
| to the Environmental Protection Agency. As laws | | | | that happens opportunities for carbon credit |
| are enacted to cap carbon emissions, trading in | | | | generation will remain available primarily to large |
| carbon is apt to become an explosively hot | | | | scale brokers. The governing authorities typically |
| commodity in an open global market. | | | | work with people who own 100 acres or more of |
| Who May Buy Carbon Credits? | | | | land and can sell quantities of 50,000 carbon |
| Carbon credits to neutralize our own footprints | | | | credits or more. |
| are readily available for anyone to purchase. When | | | | |