How is offsetting my CO₂ going to help reduce the threat of climate change?
Do you meet any industry standards?
Why aren’t you a charity?
How do you choose which projects to fund?
Do you use tree planting to offset?
Why do you not do projects in the UK?
How can we be sure that your projects are making the CO₂ reductions that you claim?
How do you calculate the CO₂ emissions?
Why do different offset companies have different prices?


How is offsetting my CO₂ going to help reduce the threat of climate change?
Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing global society. We all need to make every effort to reduce our carbon footprint as much as we can; we should offset the emissions we can’t reduce now.

Offsetting tackles climate change by:

• making real reductions in amounts of CO₂ in the atmosphere that would not have happened without us.
• providing funds for renewable technologies and energy efficient solutions.
• raising awareness of the impact that our lifestyles have on the climate.

Read more in our section about the urgency of climate change and how offsets help address the situation.

Do you meet any industry standards?
Yes and we continue to campaign for high standards. Our projects follow the same robust process of design, monitoring and independent verification as set down by the UN's Clean Development Mechanism. They also meet a recognised international standard for emission reductions.

We are developing projects to comply with the CDM, Gold Standard CDM, Gold Standard VER, Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and VER+.

Our work has played an important role in the development of the voluntary carbon market and our project principles have widely influenced the debate about what counts as a valid carbon offset.

Why are you not a charity?
We want people to pay us for a service, and thereby make the link between their actions and the climate and take responsibility for them. This is subtly different to people donating money to good works. When we started up we felt our service should not be simply seen as 'doing good'.
There is also the concern that if cleaning up pollution was adopted as a charitable goal, then the scale of the problem would mean that charitable giving to other sectors could be severely curtailed.

How do you choose which projects to fund?
We have eight years' experience of sourcing projects and have developed a strong network of contacts around the world with which we can develop high quality emission reduction projects, often with strong sustainable development credentials.

We are always interested in hearing about any potential projects. If you would like to know more about applying to Climate Care for project funds, visit our Developers page.

Do you use tree planting to offset?
Planting trees as a form of carbon sequestration can’t be seen as a solution to climate change when taken in isolation. Climate change needs to be addressed by reducing emissions through developing renewable fuel sources or boosting efficiency, rather than by focusing on sequestration. We're excited about the potential for carbon offset money to provide funds to stimulate the development of these essential technologies.

Our general portfolio for 2007/8 does not include reforestation; however we do consider sourcing emission reductions for those clients wishing to fund forest restoration. We regularly review the scientific consensus on issues directly affecting our projects. For a complete list of our current projects, see our portfolio.

Why do you not do projects in the UK?
We have to make sure that our emission reductions are not “double counted” by countries that have emission reduction targets under the United Nations Kyoto Protocol. ClimateCare will therefore not fund projects in countries that have binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol (i.e. developed countries that have ratified the Protocol) during the period when they have legally binding targets (2008-12), unless it can be assured that the emission reductions can be ‘retired’ from the national account.

How can we be sure that your projects are making the CO₂ reductions that you claim?
Our projects follow the same robust process of design, monitoring and independent verification as set down by the UN's Clean Development Mechanism. They also meet a recognised international standard for emission reductions.

You can read more about how we ensure the CO₂ reductions we make on your behalf are verified in our projects section.

How do you calculate the CO₂ emissions?
We use the best available information for calculating emissions from business activities. We have provided a summary of the calculator data we use in our business section.

Why do different offset companies have different prices?
When you buy an offset, the price will be determined by two factors:

1. The amount of CO₂ that is calculated from your activities – this may be different depending on the assumptions used by different companies. Read more about our calculations.
2. The price you are charged to offset this amount - our price per tonne of CO₂ reflects the cost to reduce 1 tonne of CO₂ through our project portfolio.