Airshed

Offsets can be purchased by individuals, companies or countries as part of an overall strategy to manage carbon emissions.

The key to the offset process is that the emission reduction or removal must not have been going to happen anyway. If it was, there has been no reduction in overall emissions. This is called “additionality.” A way to prove additionality is to show that the emissions reduction project would not have been viable without funding from offset sales.

For example, a small-scale wind farm project is developed to replace a diesel-fuelled power plant and reduce local demand for firewood and charcoal. Generating electricity from wind emits less carbon than doing so using diesel and it reduces local air pollution. The relative reduction in emissions associated with the wind farm can create an offset. This offset is additional if it can be proved the project would not have gone ahead without the money raised from offset sales.

AIRSHED supports the use of high-quality carbon offsets as part of a wider emissions management approach where accurate measurement and wide-ranging reduction efforts have first taken place.

AIRSHED has a portfolio of high-quality offsets including Gold Standard offsets.

Gold Standard offset projects conform with best practice offset project methodology, they employ only renewable energy or energy efficiency technologies with added sustainable development benefits and environmental integrity.