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Buying carbon credits is like a corporate greenwashing get out jail free card, isn't it? "Hey, no need to hate us! We're buying carbon credits!"

by iamben 5y ago

brippalcharrid 5y ago
It's like indulgences, for the remission of venial sins. The buyer is delivered publicly a clean bill of moral health, and the seller gets to build some new chateaus, estates and cathedrals.
scotty79 5y ago
It's a mechanism that uses market to let the economy and its participants know what actual costs of co2 emissions are instead letting them operate on assumption that they cost zero. I wouldn't mind if sugar manufacturers would have to buy 'sugar credits' for emitting sugar into the human population.
- nightski 5y ago
  They do. The government controls all sugar production in the U.S. They control how much can be grown, imported, and exported. It is a very unique commodity in that sense. I've worked in the industry for 10 years now.
- lozenge 5y ago
  But it doesn't use the actual cost of CO2 emissions. Nor does it "balance out" emissions by removing CO2 in one place and allowing CO2 emissions in another place. It actually works off schemes that reduce the amount of CO2 emitted compared to a hypothetical. So, it's like me saying I've made "savings" by not buying a coffee every day, even if I never actually bought coffee in the past.
- ErikVandeWater 5y ago
  Putting "actual" in quotes. Estimating the cost is insanely difficult.
  - scotty79 5y ago
    You are right, the only thing it comunicates is that there actually is some cost.
- jandrese 5y ago
  This is the fundamental problem with carbon credits. There is currently no wide scale production system for scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere. Because of this, the price of the carbon credits is set arbitrarily by politicians. It's meaningless. A carbon market only works if there are sellers. Companies that sequester carbon for X dollars per ton so producers need to buy enough credits to cover their emissions. There could even be competition as people find more efficient ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Currently the whole thing is a big game that nobody takes seriously. It is a game because if we actually priced in the cost of scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere using current technologies no fossil fuel industries would be competitive. It would threaten the gravy train for people like Rex Tillerson, so it's a nonstarter politically.

Buying carbon credits is like a corporate greenwashing get out jail free card, isn't it? "Hey, no need to hate us! We're buying carbon credits!"

by iamben 5y ago

Buying carbon credits is like a corporate greenwashing get out jail free card, isn't it? "Hey, no need to hate us! We're buying carbon credits!"

brippalcharrid 5y ago

It's like indulgences, for the remission of venial sins. The buyer is delivered publicly a clean bill of moral health, and the seller gets to build some new chateaus, estates and cathedrals.

scotty79 5y ago

It's a mechanism that uses market to let the economy and its participants know what actual costs of co2 emissions are instead letting them operate on assumption that they cost zero. I wouldn't mind if sugar manufacturers would have to buy 'sugar credits' for emitting sugar into the human population.

nightski 5y ago
They do. The government controls all sugar production in the U.S. They control how much can be grown, imported, and exported. It is a very unique commodity in that sense. I've worked in the industry for 10 years now.
lozenge 5y ago
But it doesn't use the actual cost of CO2 emissions. Nor does it "balance out" emissions by removing CO2 in one place and allowing CO2 emissions in another place. It actually works off schemes that reduce the amount of CO2 emitted compared to a hypothetical. So, it's like me saying I've made "savings" by not buying a coffee every day, even if I never actually bought coffee in the past.
ErikVandeWater 5y ago
Putting "actual" in quotes. Estimating the cost is insanely difficult.
- scotty79 5y ago
  You are right, the only thing it comunicates is that there actually is some cost.
jandrese 5y ago
This is the fundamental problem with carbon credits. There is currently no wide scale production system for scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere. Because of this, the price of the carbon credits is set arbitrarily by politicians. It's meaningless. A carbon market only works if there are sellers. Companies that sequester carbon for X dollars per ton so producers need to buy enough credits to cover their emissions. There could even be competition as people find more efficient ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Currently the whole thing is a big game that nobody takes seriously. It is a game because if we actually priced in the cost of scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere using current technologies no fossil fuel industries would be competitive. It would threaten the gravy train for people like Rex Tillerson, so it's a nonstarter politically.