Greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets have long been promoted as an important element of a comprehensive climate policy approach. Offset programs can reduce the overall cost of achieving a given emission goal by enabling emission reductions to occur where costs are lower. Offsets have the potential to deliver sustainability co-benefits, through technology development and transfer. They can also develop human and institutional capacity for reducing emissions in sectors and locations not included in a cap and trade or a mandatory government policy. However, offsets can pose a risk to the environmental integrity of climate actions, especially if issues surrounding additionality, permanence, leakage, quantification and verification are not adequately addressed. The challenge is to design offset programs and policies that can maximize their potential benefits while minimizing their potential risks. This handbook provides a systematic and comprehensive review of existing offset programs. It looks at what offsets are, how offset mechanisms function, and the successes and pitfalls they have encountered. Coverage includes offset programs across the full swath of applications including mandatory and voluntary systems, government regulated and private markets, carbon offset funds, and accounting and reporting protocols such as the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. Learning from the successes and failures of these programs will be essential to crafting effective climate policy. This is an essential reference for all regulators, policy makers, business leaders and NGOs concerned with the design and operation of GHG offset programs world-wide. Published with SEI

Carbon Accounting is a vital tool in enabling organisations to measure and report on their greenhouse gas emissions. As the need to respond to the causes and impacts of climate change becomes increasingly urgent, emissions calculations and inventories are a vital first step towards mastering climatic risk. The Handbook of Carbon Accounting offers an accessible and comprehensive presentation of the discipline. The book examines the different methods or instruments implemented by countries and companies – such as carbon taxation, carbon markets and voluntary offsetting – while revealing how these stem not simply from the aim of reducing emissions for the lowest cost, but more as a compromise between divergent interests and individual world views. It also explores the historical context of the emergence of carbon accounting, assessing its evolution since the Rio Conference in 1992 and the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, to the latest Conference of Parties in 2015 in Paris.The book concludes with a very practical guide to calculate, reduce, offset and disclose your carbon footprint.Like other management tools, carbon accounting may not be an exact science, but its contribution has never been more important. The Handbook of Carbon Accounting is a vital educational resource that will help readers – including those with no prior knowledge of the field – to understand carbon flows and stocks and to take action. It forms part of a movement that heralds the start of a new economic era in which the search for prosperity can live in harmony with the environment.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets have long been promoted as an important element of a comprehensive climate policy approach. Offset programs can reduce the overall cost of achieving a given emission goal by enabling emission reductions to occur where costs are lower. Offsets have the potential to deliver sustainability co-benefits, through technology development and transfer. They can also develop human and institutional capacity for reducing emissions in sectors and locations not included in a cap and trade or a mandatory government policy. However, offsets can pose a risk to the environmental integrity of climate actions, especially if issues surrounding additionality, permanence, leakage, quantification and verification are not adequately addressed. The challenge is to design offset programs and policies that can maximize their potential benefits while minimizing their potential risks. This handbook provides a systematic and comprehensive review of existing offset programs. It looks at what offsets are, how offset mechanisms function, and the successes and pitfalls they have encountered. Coverage includes offset programs across the full swath of applications including mandatory and voluntary systems, government regulated and private markets, carbon offset funds, and accounting and reporting protocols such as the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. Learning from the successes and failures of these programs will be essential to crafting effective climate policy. This is an essential reference for all regulators, policy makers, business leaders and NGOs concerned with the design and operation of GHG offset programs world-wide. Published with SEI

Every manager and every employee in every function can embed climate solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This book, written by experts in the field of sustainability in business, shows you how. The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges we face today, and it affects all aspects of business and society. Consequently, everyone needs to know the best high-impact climate solutions that can be embedded into their organisational area. In this book you will find ideas for your team, your department and your organisation to make this a reality. We provide you with implementation plans and inspiring case studies, with practical and helpful tools that will help you to scale up climate solutions effectively and efficiently. If you are an owner of a company or an executive in any organisation, you will benefit from this step-by-step guide on how to set up your own greenhouse gas management plan, how to set targets and how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of your whole organisation. We explain key terms such as Net Zero, Carbon Neutral, carbon emissions equivalents and the three scopes. In order to halve our emissions worldwide by 2030 to achieve Net Zero by 2050, individual actions on a large scale are required, but also systemic changes. We look at the bigger picture in this book and also how you could effect change. This is the first book to offer an easy-to-implement approach to decarbonise organisations and transform societies, and is appropriate for managers at any level. This book can also be used in business schools to inspire future managers and business leaders. Last, but not least, everyone can find ideas here that they can implement in their personal lives – let’s scale up together!

Setting up a social and environmentally sustainable business is hard work. Most entrepreneurs struggle to raise investment capital and make a small profit. Carbon credits can be a welcome source of additional revenue for those businesses and projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But where do you start? Practical information that is easy to apply to your specific situation is hard to find. The information you can find is often either too general, or full of complicated terminology. Hiring an expert is risky without an indication of whether you will be able to earn the money back. As a result many entrepreneurs are discouraged and never properly explore the possibilities of carbon credits, or get stuck somewhere in the process. This book is a beginner s guide for entrepreneurs who want to assess whether they can generate additional revenue with carbon credits. It provides a concise overview of the basics of carbon credits with a minimum of jargon, and illustrated with practical examples from real cases. Topics include: What are carbon credits? What are the basic requirements for a business or project to produce carbon credits? Where and how are they sold? What are the current prices and what influences these? Who are the different players in the industry, and what do they do? What are the different steps in the development of a carbon offset project? How do I choose a certification standard? How can I estimate the amount of carbon credits and revenue I can generate? This book addresses these questions in a way that is relevant to a wide variety of project types. Particular attention is given to the challenges of smaller projects in developing countries as well as forestry, agroforestry and biofuel projects."

Winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010 award. This book is a comprehensive and accessible guide to understanding the opportunities offered by regulated and voluntary carbon markets for tackling climate change. Coverage includes: - An overview of the problem of climate change, with a concise review of the most recent scientific evidence in different fields - A highly accessible introduction to the economic theory and different constitutive elements of a carbon allowances market - Explanation of the Kyoto Protocol and its flexibility mechanisms - Explanation of how the EU Emissions Trading Scheme works in practice - Ongoing developments in regulated carbon markets in the US - Up-to-the-minute coverage of regulated carbon markets in Australia - Developments in New Zealand and Japan - Carbon offsetting and voluntary carbon markets. Combining theoretical aspects with practical applications, this book is for business leaders, financiers, carbon traders, lawyers, bankers, researchers, policy makers and anyone interested in market mechanisms to mitigate climate change. The carbon emissions resulting from the production of this book have been calculated, reduced and offset to render the bookcarbon neutral. Published with CO2 Neutral

The world carbon market is growing at a staggering rate with trading volumes into the tens of billions of dollars and approaching a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. The growth prospects for business are enormous and the potential positive impacts for greenhouse gas emission reductions, climate policy options, renewable energy investment, development projects and efficiency gains are increasingly apparent.A key part of the market in greenhouse gas emissions is the rapidly growing voluntary carbon market driven by companies, organizations and individuals committed to efficiency, profitability and rapid action on climate change. HSBC, Volvo, Avis, Ricoh and American Express are but a few of the many companies now offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions and becoming 'carbon neutral', fuelling an international voluntary carbon market that is growing exponentially. This groundbreaking business book, written in a fast-paced journalistic style, draws together all the key information on international voluntary carbon markets with commentary from leading practitioners and business people. The voluntary market is complex, fragmented and multi-layered, but it is beginning to consolidate around a few guiding practices and business models from which conclusions can be drawn about market direction and opportunities.The book covers all aspects of voluntary carbon markets around the world: what they are, how they work and, most critically, their business potential to help slow climate change. It is the indispensable guide for anyone seeking to understand voluntary carbon markets and capitalize on the opportunities they present for economic and environmental benefit. If you want to be ahead of the curve for the next big thing, you need this book.

Thorough and detailed, The Carbon Footprint Handbook encompasses all areas of carbon footprint, including the scientific elements, methodological and technological aspects, standards, industrial case studies, and communication of carbon footprint results. Written and edited by an international group of experts, the far-ranging topics on carbon foot

'It is terrific. I can't remember the last time I read a book that was more fascinating and useful and enjoyable all at the same time.' Bill Bryson How Bad Are Bananas? was a groundbreaking book when first published in 2009, when most of us were hearing the phrase 'carbon footprint' for the first time. Mike Berners-Lee set out to inform us what was important (aviation, heating, swimming pools) and what made very little difference (bananas, naturally packaged, are good!). This new edition updates all the figures (from data centres to hosting a World Cup) and introduces many areas that have become a regular part of modern life - Twitter, the Cloud, Bitcoin, electric bikes and cars, even space tourism. Berners-Lee runs a considered eye over each area and gives us the figures to manage and reduce our own carbon footprint, as well as to lobby our companies, businesses and government. His findings, presented in clear and even entertaining prose, are often surprising. And they are essential if we are to address climate change.