Best of the carbon offset projects

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This fall, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) published , a site that contains a list of carefully screened, credible carbon offset projects. There are 12 listed and most are landfill gas destruction projects in the United States. EDF says these represent more than 750,000 tons of credible emission reductions. Within the list are links to organizations that sell the offsets for each project, so you can purchase them.

Carbon offsets have come under scrutiny in recent years because of concerns that not all offsets that companies or individuals purchase actually help offset carbon emissions and improve the environment. Carbon offset standards are voluntary and some offsets have been sold against projects that have already been completed, for example, so they are not currently lowering emissions.

What EDF did is put out a request to about 100 organizations for offset proposals, screened the projects they received, and published the 12 that made the cut. The offsets had to directly reduce emissions, be trackable, and produce net environmental benefits, among other criteria.

By Dan Kulpinski