TL;DR
- Our individual contribution to global warming is a drop in the ocean, but the world needs each and everyone of us. By changing our individual actions we can inspire others’ change, unleashing a butterfly effect.
- Reducing your carbon footprint to zero is challenging, but carbon offsetting can help. Choosing the right offset projects is of upmost importance and giving back to nature has the largest impact.
- As not all carbon projects are the same , it is key to define a rigorous criteria for offset selection prioritizing quality and integrity. Some platforms have done their job and are offering their portfolios for free.
In general, there are 2 conflicting visions on what each of us can make to fight against climate change.
One would argue that our individual contribution to global warming is a drop in the ocean and that real change needs to come at a system level. The other would argue that change is in each and everyone of us. The truth is that both are needed and today I will focus on the latest.
I cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do — Jana Stanfield
As excellently explained in this podcast, the halting of an individual’s contribution to climate change — aka its carbon footprint — won’t solve the problem. However spreading the word and leading others by example can unlock a butterfly effect resulting in a sizeable impact.
As this might seem too abstract to take action, I have come up with a list of actionable measures that each and every one can do.
In a nutshell, this is the shopping list of actions to individually fight climate change (not necessarily exhaustive):
- Measure and reduce your carbon footprint
- Give back to nature by (at least) compensating your footprint
- Spread the word, inspire others and hold decision makers accountable
Today I will focus on the first two.
In order to reduce the carbon footprint, one has to first measure and understand it. To do so, one can rely on online calculators that, through a survey, would provide the details of how large your carbon footprint is (i.e. tones of CO2e per year) and where does it come from (i.e. what activities are the most polluting).
There are several calculators out there that will make the job. One that I particulary like is WWF’s, however it is focused on UK residents and it takes several minutes to complete. A quick one that I know very well is Cosora’s — you can read how it works here.
As you can see above, calculating your carbon footprint will point you to the actions you should prioritize to reduce your contribution to climate change.
In my case, no surprise, about half of the footprint comes from travel. That is because in 2020 I moved to Indonesia and just the flight from Barcelona to Bali alone was responsible for about 6 tones of CO2 emissions (note it’s counted as a round-flight, so half of the emissions haven’t actually occured yet). So, despite the day to day actions I’m taking (namely recycling, being vegetarian, buying food locally, etc.) I cannot change the major part of my emissions (as there is no green aviation yet and I need to live in Indonesia for my job). Thus, what else can I do?
Well that’s where compensating your emissions comes online. On the other side, it is also where things get complicated.
Carbon offsetting can have a tremendous impact on nature and climate change, but only if done in the right way. When done in the wrong way, namely investing in projects that have no additionality, it is just a cheap way for green washing.
Therefore it is of upmost importance to choose wisely which projects to use to compensate your emissions. There is no official criteria to determine the quality and integrity of a carbon offsetting project.
If you look to any project’s page, all of them will claim to be high-quality.
That is why I have been helping Cosora to define a set of criteria that ensures the quality and integrity of a carbon offset portfolio:
- 🌿 Real. All projects have to be measured, monitored, reported, and verified ex-post to have actually occurred.
- 💝 Additional. Additionality is the degree to which the project wouldn’t have happened without the carbon-offset monetary contribution.
- 📈 Based on Clear, Realistic, and Credible Baselines. A project’s baseline is the hypothetical scenario where the project never occurred and sets the ground for determining the volume of tradable carbon credits.
- 🔒 Free of Leakage. For a project to be free of leakage, it shouldn’t shift the emissions it avoids anywhere else.
- 🎁 With Co-Benefits. High-quality projects have positive effects beyond climate mitigation, such as preserving biodiversity or positively impacting the community around them.
- 🗿 Durable. More durable projects make it so that their specified tons of carbon dioxide remain removed and stored from the atmosphere for longer.
- ☝️ Exclusive. Once someone pays for an offset project and claims the corresponding emissions reduction, no one else should be able to claim that reduction too.
- ✨ Transparent. Our users should be able to know what happens in the projects they contribute to and check on their progress by themselves.
Based on this strict criteria, we realized that more than 85% of all offsets out there didn’t meet our quality requirements. Only those that have proved to protect nature and those that rely on advanced technological solutions passed the bar. Cosora reached out to them to create their offset portfolio and, fortunately for us all, they have opened it for free to all its users (i.e. no platform costs).
Final note
Although I have tried to make this article as divulgative as possible, I am transparently prescribing Cosora’s offset portfolio. Thus I feel it is worth to clarify that Cosora is not making any profit from its carbon offsetting portfolio — they have a 0% platform fee — and thus I’m not getting any economic reward out of it.
I have tried to be as objective and impartial as possible — but Cosora is just too cool not to prescribe it :)
