Today's price per tonne:

£17.26

including VAT

Why is this better than other types of offsetting?

When you buy a traditional offset, your money goes to a project in the developing world that reduces emissions or absorbs greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Typical projects include tree planting, renewable energy, biofuel cultivation and improving building efficiency.

Carbon Retirement offers several advantages over this type of offsetting, which are summarised below. We're very interested in this debate, so if you have any thoughts we would love to hear from you at info@carbonretirement.com.

• All Carbon Retirement offsets are additional
• Carbon Retirement offsets are accurately measured
• Carbon Retirement is based on European industrial efficiency
• There is no risk of double counting
• The reduction in emissions is permanent
• Carbon Retirement delivers cost effective reductions

All Carbon Retirement offsets are additional

With traditional offsetting it's hard to know whether your money has achieved something that wouldn't have happened anyway.

For example, a project to distribute energy efficient lightbulbs may end up distributing to people who would have bought energy-efficient lightbulbs anyway, or a project to plant trees may plant in an area already designated for tree-planting by the local council.

Experts are concerned that many offset projects are like this and do not deliver the claimed environmental benefits.

Working out whether the project you fund is additional is notoriously difficult. Even the most rigorous standards for carbon offsetting have found it difficult to define and verify. You can never be entirely sure what would have happened in the absence of the offset project!

When you use Carbon Retirement, the overall reduction target for companies in the EU Emission Trading Scheme goes down, and they must therefore reduce their emissions more than they would have done otherwise. Carbon Retirement reductions are always additional.

Carbon Retirement offsets are accurately measured

Traditional offsetting uses complex and sometimes inaccurate accounting methods to measure the reduction in emissions.

Elements of a carbon offsetting project are often sometimes from the measurement process. For example, a project that manufactures self-hardening bricks might generate offsets from the lower fuel input for kilns, but ignore increased emissions from the chemicals used in the new bricks.

As a World Bank report stated, "rarely does 'a ton is a ton is a ton' hold less true than in this segment".

When you use Carbon Retirement, the reduction is made at source. The EU Emission Trading Scheme only covers direct emissions (such as those from burning fossil fuels), which are simpler to measure and account for.

Carbon Retirement is based on European industrial efficiency, not reductions in the developing world

Traditional offsetting projects are designed to make communities in the developing world more carbon efficient, while the developed world continues to produce high levels of emissions. Many people are uncomfortable with this concept.

Offsetting projects in the developing world can make life difficult for local communities because they change they way land is used and prevent communities from using it according to their tradition.

When you use Carbon Retirement, the reduction is made by an industrial company within the European Union.

There is no risk of double counting with Carbon Retirement

Traditional offsetting projects often involve numerous stakeholders and there is a risk that two or more of them will sell the same offset.

Commentators have also highlighted the risk of fraudulent double counting in the voluntary offset market, where one project developer sells the same offset to a number of customers.

When you use Carbon Retirement, there is no risk of double counting. The credits that we retire exist in transparent government-administered accounts and our own accounts are independently audited every six months.

With Carbon Retirement, the reduction in emissions is permanent

Some offsetting projects have been criticised because the projects do not run for long enough to avoid the promised volume of emissions, or because absorbed gases are re-released into the atmosphere at a later date.

This is a particular problem with tree planting projects. The trees take time to mature, and there is then a risk that they will die or burn down and re-release greenhouse gases.

When you use Carbon Retirement, the full reduction will take place. Whatever happens in the future, the companies covered by the EU Emission Trading Scheme have reduced their emissions.

Carbon Retirement delivers cost effective reductions

Running a carbon offset project can be very profitable. For example, factories that manufacture refrigerant chemicals produce by-products called hydro-flouro-carbons, which are potent greenhouse gases. Destroying hydro-flouro-carbons is a cheap process that can produce large volumes of carbon offsets. This actually encourages more polluting refrigerant factories to open, because selling the offsets makes them very profitable.

When you use Carbon Retirement, the price of EU Emission Allowances reflects the cost of making the reduction. The money you pay does not produce excessive profits for any party. We also use a much smaller proportion of your money for our overheads than organisations that sell traditional offsets.

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