Carbon Offset is The World’s Solution to The Climate Crisis

EnvidataID, Semarang – According to the IPCC report (Climate Change 2021), greenhouse gas and carbon emissions will play a major role in man-made global warming. Indonesia has made a pledge to reduce its carbon emissions. Compared to the 2030 Business as Usual (BaU) scenario, the government has set an unconditional target of 29 per cent and a conditional goal of 41 per cent. Global warming is accelerating over time. To reduce carbon emissions, the whole world must contribute immediately. In this case, carbon offset is one of the effective mechanisms.

The term “carbon offset” means “balancing”, and is simply described as an attempt to reduce carbon emissions in one place to compensate for carbon emission in another. There are several ways to offset carbon, including using a cap-and-trade scheme to buy carbon benefits and using carbon credits from carbon balancing regularly or not.

Carbon offset is also referred to as a program that allows individuals and companies to invest in global environmental projects with the aim of balancing the carbon impact they produce.

In addition, it should be remembered that a carbon offset is a “right” or tradable certificate related to an effort to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released from the atmosphere. Companies will fund climate change mitigation projects, such as planting trees, by purchasing these certificates. Thus, certificates compensate for buyers’ CO2 emissions with comparable emission reductions elsewhere.

In terms of carbon emissions, carbon offsets are usually applied in developed countries. Pollution cannot be eliminated by a developed country on its own. Because industrialism increases carbon pollution in many developing countries. Meanwhile, governments in the developing world continue to talk about major problems that remain, such as disease, water availability, hunger, and infant deaths. The researchers found that the carbon offset was assessed as a solution to that. Companies can offset their emissions and balance the climate impact with carbon offsets. This is achieved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, worldwide. Carbon offset is implemented as follows:

1. Reforestation

This method aims to combat deforestation and help absorb a lot of CO2 from the atmosphere. Planting thousands or even millions of trees at once is one of the actions that often occurs in developing countries.

2. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+)

The REDD+ framework aims to encourage sustainable management and provide monetary incentives to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. In this way, the private sector pays countries not to cut down forests in return for their carbon credits.

3. Access to Clean Water

As an example of this project, only 5% of people in rural Madagascar have access to clean water. While boiling water can sometimes help in this regard, a wood stove is required, which causes air pollution and releases CO2 into the atmosphere. Very often, the wood burned in the stove is not sustainably harvested. As a result, access to clean water reduces fuel costs and more families spend less time collecting firewood for the stove.

4. Wind Turbine

Wind turbines can replace fossil fuel power plants and avoid a lot of carbon dioxide. In addition, when used, wind turbines can generate carbon credits, which can be used to reduce your emissions. Once certified, these carbon credits can be used as carbon offsets for your emissions.

5. Invest in Renewable Energy

According to theecobahn.com, the best way to implement carbon offsets is to directly finance renewable energy to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. These resources are also guaranteed to have a long life and produce measurable emissions reductions.

Benefits of Carbon Offset

Overall, carbon offsets can reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by increasing the storage capacity of GHG emissions. This is because the carbon offset compensates for the actions taken by companies or individuals that produce large amounts of GHG. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced as the availability of CO2 gas absorption increases. In this way, we can slow down the pace of climate change on Earth.
Replacing carbon loss with carbon offset can help green in many places. This activity can also encourage the development of renewable or clean energy projects in developing countries.
Increase public perception of the company. Companies that show concern for environmental projects can increase their value in the eyes of consumers and investors, fostering the trust and loyalty of investors and consumers.
Creating jobs. This environmental project offers an alternative that creates new jobs for and improves the well-being of the community.
Increases creativity. With the application of carbon offset, industry players have the ability to continue to develop more environmentally friendly.
Improve compliance with the rules. Policy in some countries is aimed at reducing carbon emissions from. Carbon offset can improve compliance with applicable regulations and benefit, the environment, and society.

In short, carbon offset is a process of reducing CO2 emissions in one place while generating lower emissions elsewhere. As global carbon emissions continue to rise to alarming levels, carbon ofset is rapidly becoming increasingly important as a mechanism to combat climate change and global warming.

Reference: shell.co.id | waste4change.com | lindungihutan.com | icdx.co.id