Climate Change

Regardless of the occasionally raucous uproar made very public by “climate change skeptics”, there are some hard and fast facts. The expert scientists who make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are strongly of the opinion that human activities are causing substantial changes to our atmosphere. These changes to our atmosphere and climate are going to have long-lasting and profound impacts on human (and all other) life on this planet. The findings of the IPCC are based on published, peer reviewed scientific works. Given the huge amount of data required to make such assertions, we can conclude that the vast majority of practicing scientists in the fields of meteorology, oceanography and ecology believe that humans are the cause of the apparent changes. There are, as some skeptics point out, many possible causes for the increase in global average temperature. So, when the IPCC scientists looked objectively at all of the data (see Figure 1 below), it was very clear what the net effect of human impact on climate change has been. Human activity has caused an increase in the number and amount of things that cause the planet to warm. Even though there is some uncertainty about the absolute impact, the finding is clear: we are harming our atmosphere.

IPCC scientists state that the relationship between burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and climate change is “UNEQUIVOCAL”. It’s rare for a large group of scientists to agree on anything so conclusively but the data (Figure 2) show why they all agree so strongly. Human activities over the last 200 years have caused massive increases in the concentration of gases in the atmosphere that have the potential to seriously change how our planet’s atmosphere behaves.

So, what is the likely impact of climate change from here? There are a variety of significant changes we will see in our lifetimes. The average global temperature is already almost a degree warmer than what is would have been in the past, our oceans have warmed by about half a degree, and glaciers across the planet are shrinking dramatically. These increases in temperature will influence wind and rainfall patterns, leading to more severe weather events, rising sea levels and dramatic shifts in the fitness and distribution of ecosystems. Along with this will come significant economic and social costs: loss of productive land to encroaching oceans, lower rainfall leading to reduced productivity of crops and grazing lands, increasingly frequent and more extreme water shortages and huge numbers of people displaced as their lands become uninhabitable due to rising sea level.

But we can all act to help slow and hopefully reverse these impacts. The situation is not lost, and the future is yet to be written. With decisive action from individuals, communities, businesses and governments, we can change the future to be a far more positive one. The choice to act, however, has to be taken now.

The way we can all make a difference is to become active and a big part of the solution, rather than a small part of the problem. There are many simple steps we can take to minimise how much we add to the greenhouse gases that are warming our atmosphere. It’s a simple fact that however hard we try, it’s almost inevitable that we will still be causing greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere. Making the choice to move towards offsetting the emissions we cannot avoid means we are making a real contribution to the future.

Carbon Offsets

In general, there are three kinds of basic projects that mean greenhouse gases are not emitted or greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere. The first is renewable energy; these kinds of projects add electricity to the grid from easily renewable sources, such as solar, wind and biogas, without adding emissions. The second kind of projects are where emissions are avoided, by reducing demand for power that would have been sourced from non-renewable and greenhouse gas intensive sources like coal fired power stations. The third kind of projects are where trees are planted to take up (or sequester) carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

While many individuals, businesses and organisations are offering to sell “carbon offsets”, not all of these have been verified to demonstrate that they are achieving real emission reductions or sequestration. We have a policy of only purchasing credits that lead to real emissions reductions!

To meet this standard, we require that the credits:

  • have been verified by an independent third party,
  • results have been carefully and conservatively determined,
  • are not sourced from any activity that is classified as “business as usual”, but would only have occurred because of the finances provided by the offset provider, and
  • we have a preference for credits that provide other ancillary environmental benefits.

In Australia, we only sell credits verified by the Australian Greenhouse Office Greenhouse Friendly program, and the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. In countries outside of Australia, we have a preference for Gold Standard verified projects. In other countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, alternative arrangements for independently verified credits can be discussed.