May 3, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Reduce, reuse, recycle — and, now, retire. The Clean Air Conservancy plans to add a fourth R to the familiar three by allowing people to purchase “carbon credits” — stocks that regulate how much carbon dioxide companies emit — and donate them to a charitable fund that holds the stocks, essentially retiring them.
On the “climate exchange,” companies that emit greenhouse gases are allotted a certain number of credits, each worth one ton of emissions, based on their size and industry. Those polluting less than their share can sell credits to companies that pollute more, allowing the over-polluters to escape penalties. Proponents view the idea as a capitalistic solution to environmental troubles.
So does the clean-air group. It asks supporters to buy shares on the Chicago Climate Exchange and transfer them to the Clean Air Conservancy Charitable Trust, which is not legally allowed to sell them.
The conservancy has been buying shares for a few years, but it started promoting them to donors through a Web site in March, says Michael R. Short, program director at the environmental charity.
The site allows people to purchase carbon-dioxide credits at $10 per ton, either for themselves or as a gift, and transfer rights to the trust. People can also calculate their “carbon footprint” by entering data about waste and travel habits and then go “carbon neutral” by purchasing an equivalent number of shares. (For perspective, a family of four emits around 50 tons of greenhouse gases yearly.)
The U.S. carbon market currently is voluntary, unlike in Europe, where shares trade at $25. But Mr. Short says more and more companies are embracing the idea and some even donate shares to the trust, partly because the Internal Revenue Service now allows tax breaks for carbon donations.
He adds that pending bills in California and New England — and future bills in Congress — may require participation in the carbon market.
Mr. Short bases his optimism about carbon markets on a similar market in the 1980s for sulfur dioxide, the cause of acid rain. Using what he calls “a very low-cost, very efficient approach,” that market cut emissions worldwide by 35 percent. And nowadays, “you don’t hear a lot about acid rain,” he says.
For more information: Go to http://www.buycarbon.org
