It is important that everybody in the world works on reducing the Greenhouse effect. This can be done by being conscious of climate compensation. In the world we have all created, it seems ti be impossible to avoid CO2 emissions. However, you can reduce them.
Greenhouse gas CO2 is released by almost anything that one does. From breathing to driving your car, it’s impossible to live without it. However, the amount of CO2 that has been created in the world of today harms our environment. Consciously choosing for a more isolated house, sustainable food and transportation can make a lot of difference. This can be done by various projects such as sponsoring renewable energy companies or tree planting.
Prevention is better than cure
To prevent further damage to climate change, it is necessary to use less energy and travel more by foot or bike. By doing so, less CO2 emissions get realized into the air. Other things or activities that make it hard to avoid CO2 emission, can be reduced by compensating.
Tips for preventing CO2 emissions
- A lot of energy gets wasted in our daily usage of devices. Using economical devices with at least energy label B, preferably A will help to save a lot.
- Green energy is a lot better for the environment than grey energy. Green energy is collected through sustainable sources such as light, wind and water. Placing solar panels on your house is not only sustainable but it also makes you your own energy generator. Therefore, you won’t need any contract with an energy supplier.
- If you’re going on holiday, choose to go somewhere in your own country or reachable by bus or train. Flying is the biggest cause of CO2 emissions and therefore bad for our environment.
- Eat less meat and fish. Livestock produces a lot of Methane, which is another toxic gas that enhances global warming. Due to overfishing, the oceans become empty and a lot of waste disappears into the ocean. Therefore, it is more sustainable to eat completely vegetarian. If everyone in the world would eat vegetarian just once a week, we would reduce the Greenhouse gasses with 75%.
Climate compensation
For the things that already have done too much damage and can’t be changed anymore, there are still many ways to control the damage. Therefore, climate compensation is created. The most important thing about climate compensation is that for every CO2 emission you cause, you give something back to nature. Less CO2 gets emitted and removed from the air by your actions. There are of course many ways to compensate your CO2 emission, but among others here are the three most common ones:
- Planting a tree. All trees around us produce oxygen and biomass by extracting CO2. Moreover, when they grow they
produce even more oxygen than normal. In addition, growing trees store CO2. As soon as they are done growing, they automatically stop storing CO2 (but still convert CO2 from the air into oxygen). The CO2 that has been stored can only be released by burning or the rotting process of the tree. Therefore, companies that offer planting a tree often change the trees when they are fully grown. With new trees, new CO2 can be stored and removed from the air. - Demonstrating to close down coal companies and become a member of wind-farms. By financially supporting wind-farms, more can be created and that will ensure more green energy.
- Invest in energy saving projects.
Compensation is not location-orientated. The toxic gases that cause global warming are spread all over the world. Therefore, if one lives for example in Oregon and produces a lot of CO2, it can be compensated in New York. Even a wind-farm in Germany or the replacement of solar panels instead of wood in the Amazon in Peru could help. Therefore, we can all contribute to CO2 compensation.
How to support climate compensation
Planting every year a new tree in your own garden can get a bit complicated. Also, most people don’t have space to place a windmill in their backyard. Therefore, many organizations help individuals with climate compensation. In fact, most climate compensations are working as the middlemen and connect the customer and company. Apart from that, here are some other tips to get into action:
- Some popular airlines like RyanAir and KLM offer the option to compensate your CO2 emission by donating a small amount of money. Usually, it’s not another transaction or action that you have to make, but it gets calculated into your total ticket price. With the money donated, the airlines work on different projects to ensure less CO2 emissions.
- Climate compensation not only gets offered by airline companies but also by many car-and travel insurances. Depending on which insurance, most ones calculate the number of hours you will travel and how much CO2 that will cause. With that calculation, one can choose to pay a bit more extra, which then can help the company to invest in CO2 compensating projects and mechanical development.
- Some energy suppliers offer a CO2 compensation by for instance planting a tree or having a smart thermometer. Of course, the best option would do be your own energy supplier with sun or wind energy.
Donating to climate change projects
Also, with various projects of climate compensation, you can help by donating online. Usually one can choose what somebody wants to compensate; gas, electricity or transportation. Of course, also all of them can be compensated. Usually one has to transfer a certain amount of money to enhance a project. Of course, it is very important to be careful with what organization to choose. Since you’re not actually managing the process closely and there are many offers for the project, it is important to use a trustful organization to not get scammed. A couple of those trustful organizations are among others:
- Natural Forest Foundation. This organization has the goal to plant 50 million trees in the forest of Montana by the year 2023. One tree is planned for just one dollar.
- Fair Climate Fund: The Fair Climate Fund is an international organization that focuses on cleaner food consumption and planting trees. This leads not only to reduced CO2 emissions, but also enhances the quality of life for those in poorer countries. Also, the company only sells products that are fair made.
- GreenSeat: GreenSeat is part of the Climate Neutral Group, which is again part of The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance. GreenSeat focuses on green travel and projects supporting alternative travel. They support projects such as airplanes with solar panels, electric buses and green power for trains.
Quality Mark
The international quality mark for trustful situations that work on reducing CO2 emissions or any other form of sustainability is Gold Standard. This quality mark is supported by for instance the WWF. Companies that work on qualified project receive a ‘Sustaincer’.