Greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets have long been promoted as an important element of a comprehensive climate policy approach. Offset programs can reduce the overall cost of achieving a given emission goal by enabling emission reductions to occur where costs are lower. Offsets have the potential to deliver sustainability co-benefits, through technology development and transfer. They can also develop human and institutional capacity for reducing emissions in sectors and locations not included in a cap and trade or a mandatory government policy. However, offsets can pose a risk to the environmental integrity of climate actions, especially if issues surrounding additionality, permanence, leakage, quantification and verification are not adequately addressed. The challenge is to design offset programs and policies that can maximize their potential benefits while minimizing their potential risks. This handbook provides a systematic and comprehensive review of existing offset programs. It looks at what offsets are, how offset mechanisms function, and the successes and pitfalls they have encountered. Coverage includes offset programs across the full swath of applications including mandatory and voluntary systems, government regulated and private markets, carbon offset funds, and accounting and reporting protocols such as the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. Learning from the successes and failures of these programs will be essential to crafting effective climate policy. This is an essential reference for all regulators, policy makers, business leaders and NGOs concerned with the design and operation of GHG offset programs world-wide. Published with SEI

Every manager and every employee in every function can embed climate solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This book, written by experts in the field of sustainability in business, shows you how. The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges we face today, and it affects all aspects of business and society. Consequently, everyone needs to know the best high-impact climate solutions that can be embedded into their organisational area. In this book you will find ideas for your team, your department and your organisation to make this a reality. We provide you with implementation plans and inspiring case studies, with practical and helpful tools that will help you to scale up climate solutions effectively and efficiently. If you are an owner of a company or an executive in any organisation, you will benefit from this step-by-step guide on how to set up your own greenhouse gas management plan, how to set targets and how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of your whole organisation. We explain key terms such as Net Zero, Carbon Neutral, carbon emissions equivalents and the three scopes. In order to halve our emissions worldwide by 2030 to achieve Net Zero by 2050, individual actions on a large scale are required, but also systemic changes. We look at the bigger picture in this book and also how you could effect change. This is the first book to offer an easy-to-implement approach to decarbonise organisations and transform societies, and is appropriate for managers at any level. This book can also be used in business schools to inspire future managers and business leaders. Last, but not least, everyone can find ideas here that they can implement in their personal lives - let's scale up together!

Collects twenty-nine articles in which various viewpoints on the topics of carbon offsets are presented, covering how carbon trading works, effectiveness of the strategy on the reduction of global warming, the benefits of tree-based offsets, and regulation issues.

First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Climate change is an environmental problem of unprecedented complexity, not just in terms of its physical, social, economic and political impacts, but particularly in terms of the range of policy instruments being designed by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate Change and Carbon Markets aims to provide an accessible and practical guide to cutting edge market-based mechanisms which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This book is a guide for national and international policy-makers and industry professionals, who need to understand the carbon markets established pursuant to the Kyoto Protocol, one of the most complex agreements ever negotiated. The book sets out how carbon markets will function by explaining the rules, institutions and procedures of the Kyoto mechanisms, including: emissions trading, joint implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It also provides an in-depth explanation of the EU Emissions Allowance Trading Scheme, emerging mechanisms in the US and developing countries, and how these will link up. For policy-makers, researchers and scholars; industry practitioners, companies, market service providers, technical and legal consultants, NGOs and all stakeholder organizations engaged in the Kyoto markets, this is the authoritative and comprehensive practical guide to this rapidly evolving area. Contains the full text of the key European Union documents setting up the EU Emissions Allowance Trading Scheme and the Linking Directive.

Significant reduction of local, regional, national and international greenhouse gas emissions in homes, businesses, industries and communities has become an international priority. This book describes in clear, concise, and understandable terms the nature and scope of the climate change problem. The authors combine their considerable expertise to offer guidelines for defining and applying effective carbon reduction policies, strategies, and technologies. They propose a well-defined road map which can be implemented to help control and abate the alarming increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.