LOST IN THE FOREST
Does planting trees fight global warming-or is this seemingly simple fix too good to be true?
Greenminded airline passengers from as far away as the U.S. and New Zealand are stumping up $20 per plant, hoping the trees will absorb from the atmosphere an amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent to their share spewed out during a flight. To Ru Hartwell project director of Treeflights.com, which offers the service, it’s a “self-imposed green tax-something altruistic for the planet.”Treeflinghts.com is one of this new breed of companies first 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 such as use Eritrea switch from fossil-fuel electricity generation to solar panels. Voluntary carbon offsetting is an unlicensed industry, and without a common regulator to police the projects and companies pledging to shrink emissions offset provider have come up with a raft of competing rules and practices, not all of them with the credibility customers expect. Take tree planting. Although experts agree that do suck upCO2 from the atmosphere, that’s still no consensus on just how much a forest can absorb in its lifetime and scientists estimate that, depending on the soil and climate, a hectare of 1000trees can process between five and 10 tons of CO2 each year. But an SSE spokesman admits that scientific uncertainty made it impossible to verify that the 150,000 tree it had planted in the U.K., Brazil and Guatemala covered its assertion. If but some firms are still willing to sponsor major reforestation initiatives. However, get industry wide protocol in May, and says that around 20 projects are currently applying the code. A rival benchmark Voluntary Carbon Standard is expected to be drawn up soon by the International Emissions Trading Association and the U.K.’s Climate Group. Big corporations and governments already benefit from a common system of approving offset project under the auspices of the United Nations framework Convention on the climate Change. With a common set of rules’ voluntary offsetting could see its ranks of followers-and the market’s credibility-grow further.