Carbon Offset Programs

In My Humble Opinion
1

In a thread in FQ, I’m trying to figure out how much extra CO2 I’ll emit if I buy a regular car instead of a hybrid or plug-in hybrid. The idea being, what if I bought the regular car and used some of the savings to purchase carbon offsets – sort of like imposing a carbon tax on myself.

The price is surprisingly low, like less that $200 over 10 years (assuming I have the math right over there). This is suspicious – can I really offset my additional carbon emissions for $20/year?

Someone in that thread pointed out that most carbon offset programs are bullshit. However, there must be some that really do remove carbon or replace emissions or something.

So, I’m looking for advice on a reputable carbon offset program that I could send money to and offset the excess carbon I may emit if I buy a regular car rather than a plug-in hybrid. Any help?

2

When I fly long distance, I donate to the UN’s carbon offset programs. That said, I last did so before COVID and the airline I used since then had an elective offset charge, which I paid instead of hunting up my own option.

3

None of them do anything that genuinely compensates for the emissions. At best they are investments in clean energy that wouldn’t have found funds otherwise. At worst they are gifts to the investors in profitable projects. (Well, at worst they are gifts to the managers of carbon offset programs.) The lack of cost effective ways to deal with emissions are why we are in trouble in the first place.