CARBON
NEUTRAL: OFFSETTING YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
BACKGROUND
The local communities in Malawi depend on the local natural resources,
and 98% of the population relies on wood for cooking.
Deforestation
is becoming widespread, which is leading to increased soil erosion,
loss of soil fertility, reduced crop yields and loss of time when women
and other family members walk long distances to collect wood. Please
click here to read information
about deforestation and reforestation.
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BENEFITS
OF PLANTING TREES IN MALAWI
The
primary objectives of the organisations and individuals that kindly
donate to the RIPPLE Africa tree planting projects are related
to local sustainability and alleviation of poverty. For example,
development of sustainable sources of wood for cooking fuel has
huge benefits to local communities.
Some
organisations and individuals also wish to offset their carbon
footprint and become “carbon neutral”, and planting
trees is recognised as a potential offsetting method. We consider
offsetting as a secondary objective compared to helping the local
communities in Malawi. |
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BENEFITS
OF FUEL-EFFICIENT WOOD BURNING CLAY STOVES (MBAULA)
Planting trees
is one aspect of this programme, but it is equally important to
protect existing trees. As time goes on, the availability of firewood
is being reduced. Our project to develop fuel-efficient wood burning
clay stoves will result in a significant reduction in the number
of trees that will be cut down in the future. These stoves use
considerably less wood than the commonly used three-stone fires,
and we estimate the firewood savings for each cooking stove per
year to be 80 small/medium trees. Not only is there the benefit
of reduced firewood consumption, but these stoves produce less
smoke and consequently will reduce the incidence of respiratory
illnesses. To find out more about this project, please click here. |
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WHAT
IS OFFSETTING?
Everyone
carries out activities (e.g. driving, taking flights, heating the house,
etc.) that lead to emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide),
which are agreed to be the main causes of global warming. The table
below shows the amount of carbon emitted per person per year for 2003
(to see the full table, please click here): |
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Map courtesy
of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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| Country |
Tonnes
per Person per Year (figures are for 2003) |
Country |
Tonnes
per Person per Year (figures are for 2003) |
| USA |
19.80 |
South
Africa |
7.80 |
| Australia |
18.00 |
Spain |
7.30 |
| Canada |
17.90 |
France
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6.20 |
| Ireland |
10.30 |
Switzerland |
5.60 |
| Germany |
9.80 |
China |
3.20 |
| UK |
9.40 |
India |
1.19 |
| New
Zealand |
8.80 |
Zambia |
0.19 |
| Netherlands |
8.70 |
Malawi |
0.07 |
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| Many
organisations and individuals choose to offset their carbon footprint
by donating to renewable/sustainable energy projects which lead to overall
lower carbon dioxide emissions, or to forestry projects where the trees
serve to remove carbon from the atmosphere. The aim of these organisations
and individuals is to become carbon neutral.
However,
we would like to point out the following: |
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Carbon
offsetting is a fairly new concept which still has much uncertainty. |
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There
has been some recent bad press related to the inconsistent methods
used to calculate carbon footprints and the lack of a standard
approach. |
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Several
carbon offsetting organisations carry out monitoring and verification
of the projects, which does provide reassurance to the donors,
but this means that a large proportion of the donation goes towards
administration and salaries. Other schemes do not carry out verification. |
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| If
your main drive is to offset your carbon emissions with renewable energy
projects, then we recommend that you try out other websites that are
specific to this type of carbon offsetting.
However,
at this stage when carbon offsetting is so uncertain, you might want
to donate to our tree planting projects in the knowledge that your money
will go further to strengthen the local sustainability of natural resources
and improve the livelihoods of local communities in Malawi.
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| WHAT
WE DO AND WHAT WE DON'T |
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We
do help local communities to plant large numbers of
trees
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We
do use every pound/dollar donated for carbon offsetting
to plant trees
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We
do plant indigenous, fruit and exotic trees in preserved
forests, woodlots and homesteads
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We
do plant mixed forests
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We
do help local communities preserve their existing forests
through awareness training |
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We
do help and encourage local communities to use fuel-efficient
wood-burning clay stoves (mbaula) |
| We
Don't … |
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We
don't plant large monoculture forests |
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We
don't make a profit |
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We
don't waste money on expensive verification and administration |
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QUICK
CARBON OFFSET CALCULATOR
£10
/ $20 will offset a minimum of 1 tonne of carbon emissions
Approximate
examples of carbon emissions (per person): |
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Total
annual carbon emissions for an average person in the UK
(based on typical energy bills, car use, and life style) |
10
tonnes |
£100/$200 |
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Flights
(per person) |
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A
short haul return flight |
0.5
tonne |
£5/$10 |
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A
medium haul return flight |
1.5
tonnes |
£15/$30 |
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A
long haul return flight |
3
tonnes |
£30/$60 |
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Cars
(per car) |
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Average
annual car emissions travelling 10,000 miles |
3
tonnes |
£30/$60 |
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Homes
(per home) |
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Average
annual emissions for a three-bedroomed house |
5.5
tonnes |
£55/$110 |
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Remember
that carbon emissions will vary for different people, and our
aim is to keep it simple and provide average carbon emissions
per person per year. In addition to the above, there are many
other types of carbon emissions related to manufacturing, transport,
recreation, education, etc., which all contribute to the average
person's annual carbon footprint. |
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If
you're concerned about global warming, then the first thing you should
do, before offsetting your carbon footprint, is to try to reduce your
carbon emissions by saving energy. If you would like some tips on saving
energy, then please click here. |
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Company
Registration No. 04823686 •
UK Registered Charity No. 1103256 |
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