offsetting from Kevin Hague. The Project Rameka team had no problem and immediately came up with new

In which I guest-post as myself and describe a carbon forest sink project I am involved in and our debate about whether we should provide carbon offsets to anyone as part of the project. I originally wrote this for the Greens Frogblog
Simon Johnson is a conservationist, tramper, accountant, former DOC worker and resource management consultant. Simon also blogs periodically at Hot-Topic.co.nz. In this guest post he writes about carbon offsetting from the point of view of a carbon forest .
It s really a response to climate change made by two of my old friends, Bronwen Wall and Jonathan Kennett, who bought the land in 2008 . Bronwen and Jonathan decided to apply their experience organising native planting projects in Wellington cheap car rental in usa to climate change after reading the 2007 fourth report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In return for a 50-year covenant restricting the land use to forest, we receive about 800 carbon credits (specifically assigned amount units ) per year for Project Rameka. These units started life as part of New Zealand s 1990 baseline cheap car rental in usa amount of Kyoto units under the Kyoto Protocol .
How many units we get is based on the amount of carbon withdrawn from the atmosphere by the trees. Thanks to the Golden Bay weather, cheap car rental in usa plants grow really quickly. So we really are storing carbon. We have seen 3cm annual growth rings in the few pines we have removed.
For a couple of years we didn t do anything with the units. They sat in our account at the NZ Emissions Unit Register (the bank for carbon credits and emission units). We initially thought the units could be a revenue stream to fund more traps or native seedlings. However the many donations to the project have always kept ahead of the costs.
As we began to understand the New Zealand emissions trading scheme (NZETS), we realised that the good done by the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative couldn t make up for the design flaws in the NZETS, as they are joined at the hip. Both schemes create and use carbon credits that are bought, sold and have prices. We could say that the PFSI and the NZETS are both limbs connected cheap car rental in usa by the blood flow of carbon credits to the body, the international carbon trading market.
So when we were approached cheap car rental in usa by Green Party MP Kevin Hague , to offset his greenhouse gas emissions, we didn t say yes straight away. We had a bit of a discussion about it. Trying of course to avoid MEGO; My Eyes Glaze Over , as we would rather be talking about this winter s planting plan than carbon trading. After much discussion we had two options.
like the NZETS are sufficient responses to climate change. That clearly isn t the case. We would agree with James Hansen that the UNFCCC and Kyoto processes have not and will not achieve the magnitude of emissions reductions the science tells us is necessary.
Why did we do this? Well, we know that Kevin s flying is not for a weekend of shopping in Melbourne, but part of the essential price of putting the Green message to the public. We support the Greens as the only party with good policy on climate change. The fact that the Green MPs offset their flying emissions does have real political value.
This struck home to me back in June this year when I went to a talk about the Rio+20 conference . Kennedy Graham described the conference s failure to address climate change as a double crisis , an environmental crisis and a crisis of international governance.
Neophyte cheap car rental in usa Minister of the Environment Amy Adams defended business-as-usual and patronised Kennedy, saying he was too idealistic. Some one asked Adams if she offset her flying cheap car rental in usa and what she did personally to reduce her emissions. cheap car rental in usa She completely fluffed her answer. Moral victory to Kennedy who we know had offset his air travel to Rio.
We cancel, not sell, our assigned amount units, in return for payment from Kevin Hague. A sale would mean the unit could be resold many times before being used by an emitter in the NZETS to allow their emissions. Cancelling means the unit legally ceases to exist. It can never be used by an emitter. Also, we could insist on a higher price per tonne of GHGs than the current cheap car rental in usa NZ market price which has recently been less than the price of a cup of coffee. With Kevin Hague we settled cheap car rental in usa on $25 per tonne, which was the price discussed when the NZETS was being amended in 2009.
offsetting from Kevin Hague. The Project Rameka team had no problem cheap car rental in usa and immediately came up with new trapping and planting projects for the money. As ever they exceeded expectations. They went out and bought the traps and installed them before any money had changed hands!
cheap car rental in usa So far we have not agreed to provide any offsetting service to anyone but Kevin Hague. We have been asked a few times to offset discretionary personal overseas travel and we have said No . Flying cheap car rental in usa that doesn t seem that essential doesn t tick all the boxes the same as our arrangement cheap car rental in usa with Kevin Hague.
Since we started our offsetting arrangement with Kevin, the price of carbon has continued to decline and the NZETS has been made even more ineffective. The Government has permanently excluded agriculture from the NZETS and has extended the two-tonne-for-one-unit discount for emitters. Tim Groser remains welded to the idea of lowest international cost .
Carbon cheap car rental in usa foresters have seen the value of their forests decline by 90% . Pine seedling planting in nurseries has declined by millions and forest clearance for dairy conversions in the North Island looks like starting all over again.
Kevin Hague has said to us that he appreciates being able to go for a bike ride at Rameka where his flying is offset, and he also appreciates that we let him know what his money was spent on. He said to us It felt real .
If only we could get the rest of New Zealand s climate change and emissions trading policies just as real in terms of being the right incentive at the right price to really cheap car rental in usa reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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