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Carbon Creidts -- How do they work ?

splat

Nam I am
Ok I hear in the news all this Bit about Buying carbon credit. But 1) how do you buy them , 2) what exactly are you buying 3) how does who you buy them from make up for your carbon ? 4) and how is all this documented , and 5) really what does it mean ?
 

CRoss

Turbo Monkey
Nov 20, 2006
1,329
0
The Ranch
The way I see it is it is a way for Hollywood types and rich people to feel better about themselves. They give money to companies that do things to reduce carbon. Depending on how much money you give they will tell you how much carbon you are helping to get rid of. So you really are doing nothing to reduce your carbon impact on the environment.

Very similar to ski areas that give large amounts of money to electric companies so the electric company says its wind energy is goes to the ski area. There really is no way for the electric company to direct the energy from the wind generators directly to the ski areas. They would have to be on a separate power grid.
 

Wingnut

Turbo Monkey
Nov 12, 2003
1,664
179
Sorry, I'm Canadian ..sorry...
I think it's just government payoffs of lost bets between countries. They guess how much pollutants they will contribute for x amount of time, if they go over, they pay the others.

It basically buying the right to pollute more.
 

erastusboy

Monkey
Mar 5, 2003
470
0
The idea is give every company (or individual) x amount of carbon credits. If they want or need to release (or use) more carbon (greenhouse gases etc.). They can buy some from another company.

So I guess if you are say a trucking company you are going to need some more credits cause of all the Co2 you release, you would buy them from a dotcom or some other company that doesn't really produce co2.

It's pretty hokey.
 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,860
4,154
Copenhagen, Denmark
I am not sure how it works but normally its all about marginal cost. If I have to eliminate one carbon and it cost me 10 dollars to do so then if somebody else can eliminate one carbon for 5 dollars I can pay him 6 dollars to do so save 4 dollars and he makes 1 dollar. Hence more efficiently lowering of carbon emission.
 

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
send me some money and i will give you some environmental attributes..

oh, you cant see, hear nor touch them... but you will have bought them.

Send money and save the planet!

:D
 

splat

Nam I am
call ur buddy algore.. he can talk Tennessean to you so you can get it.
No No

I'm serious , and Not in a political way. even if it is a Bunch of Hog wash( Which I think it is ) I am curious how it is suppose to work , and the places you Buy Credits from , what do they actually do ( biside take rich Peoples Money so they can drive there H2 to pick up a Latte ) ?
 

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
No No

I'm serious , and Not in a political way. even if it is a Bunch of Hog wash( Which I think it is ) I am curious how it is suppose to work , and the places you Buy Credits from , what do they actually do ( biside take rich Peoples Money so they can drive there H2 to pick up a Latte ) ?

say i am a power producer who uses wind power to generate a a tiny amount of power and you are a huge elec utility who is burning satan's coal.

I sell you a carbon credit for say each kwh of wind produced energy so you can use it to cancel on kwh of your coal produced elec.

again.. its a silly shell game of selling nothing really.. just enviromental attributes
 

splat

Nam I am
say i am a power producer who uses wind power to generate a a tiny amount of power and you are a huge elec utility who is burning satan's coal.

I sell you a carbon credit for say each kwh of wind produced energy so you can use it to cancel on kwh of your coal produced elec.

again.. its a silly shell game of selling nothing really.. just enviromental attributes
Then How did AL Gore supposedly buy Credits to off set all the energy his "modest" home uses ?