Carbon Credits
Carbon
Credits
- A carbon credit (aka.
carbon offset) is a credit for
greenhouse emissions reduced or removed from the atmosphere by an emission
reduction project, which can be used by governments, industry,
or private individuals to compensate for the emissions they generate
elsewhere.
- Those that cannot
easily reduce emissions can still operate, at a higher financial cost.
- Carbon credits are
based on the "cap-and-trade" model that was used to
reduce sulfur pollution in the 1990s.
- One carbon credit
is equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or in some markets, carbon dioxide
equivalent gases (CO2-eq).
- Negotiators at the Glasgow COP26 climate change
summit in November 2021 agreed to create a
global carbon credit offset trading market.
- The Kyoto Protocol provides for three
mechanisms that enable countries, or operators in
developed countries, to acquire
greenhouse gas reduction credits:
- Under Joint
Implementation (Ji), a developed country (DC) with
relatively high costs of domestic greenhouse reduction would set up a project in another
developed country.
- Under the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM), a DC can “sponsor” a greenhouse gas
reduction project in a developing country where the
cost of greenhouse gas reduction project activities is usually much
lower, but the atmospheric effect is globally equivalent. The DC would
be given credits for meeting its emission reduction targets, while the developing country would
receive the capital investment and clean technology or beneficial change in land use.
- Under International
Emissions Trading (IET), countries can
trade in the international carbon credit
market to cover their shortfall in Assigned
Amount Units (AAUs). Countries with SURPLUS UNITS can sell them to countries that
are exceeding their emission targets under Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol.
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