Word: co2
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...More Trees, Fewer Chimneys I was pleased to read "Lost in the forest" [Jan. 29], about the plans of some companies to compensate for their CO2 emissions by planting trees. This is a nice first step. But we also need a worldwide organization with a lot of political and economic power to force companies of every country to reduce CO2 emissions. Gerrit Röpke Verden, Germany...
...calculates the amount of greenhouse gases an individual or business generates by flying, driving or heating and lighting a home or office. Customers then voluntarily pay that firm to invest in projects that will cut carbon emissions by an equal amount. (Energy-hungry Americans generate about 20 tons of CO2 per capita per year; Britons, about half that). So for anything between $4 and $40 to offset the equivalent of one ton of CO2, a consumer in, say, Germany might help schools and hospitals in Eritrea switch from fossil-fuel electricity generation to solar panels. The simplicity of the idea...
Take tree planting. Although experts agree that trees do suck up CO2 from the atmosphere, there's still no consensus on just how much a forest can absorb in its lifetime. Scientists estimate that, depending on the soil and climate, a hectare of 1,000 trees can process between five and 10 tons of CO2 each year. But the longer the time span, the harder the absorption is to predict. Some companies, such as London's Carbon Clear, say they invest not just in planting trees, but also in ensuring they thrive. But others may not be so diligent...
...businesses keen to brandish their green credentials, this uncertainty is troublesome. In October, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) after it was unable to prove its claim to absorb through tree planting the 140,000 tons of CO2 produced each year by customers. An SSE spokesman admits that scientific uncertainty made it impossible to verify that the 150,000 trees it had planted in the U.K., Brazil and Guatemala covered its assertion...
...reforestation initiatives, others aren't taking chances. HSBC steered clear of trees when it successfully offset 170,000 tons of its emissions for the last quarter of 2005 through investments in renewable energy projects. "However many trees we planted around the world, we could not keep up [with global CO2 output]", says Francis Sullivan, the bank's environment adviser. HSBC looks, he says, for more efficient uses of its money, such as its investment in a wind farm in New Zealand. Tree planting, Sullivan says, "is a distraction." Many green groups agree. In a recent report, Friends of the Earth...