Caveat Emptor, or "buyer beware," is the motto of today’s market for buyers looking to balance their carbon usage with a contribution to green activities. With many divergent groups offering a variety of attractive options, who knows how to judge good, better and best?

As many have discovered, trying to calculate and then find a credible carbon offset can be a complicated process. But there are some questions that you as a consumer can ask to determine whether a particular offset is a good choice for you and your conscience. 

Questions about the permanence, additionality, leakage and standards (PALS) are the cornerstones of offset quality. Here are some of the questions you should ask when looking for an offset program:

Permanence

• Will the project be around long enough to actually capture the carbon over time and keep it there?
• Is there a reserve of carbon offsets to buffer for potential carbon losses resulting from storms or other natural events?

Additionality

• Is this project something new?
• Was the work happening anyway?

Ideally your offset should be supporting projects that add new carbon sequestration or reduction options that would not be possible without your support. They include new efforts to protect and reforest land and new opportunities to preserve old growth forests.

Leakage

If the new carbon project is going to change the use of land from an old purpose to the new carbon storage purpose, is the old use of the land simply going to move to an area that would have been forested?

Offset project developers should have a satisfactory response to this question that takes into account agricultural and timber markets, land-use changes, and the likelihood that re-planting trees in one location would move farming or logging operations to another location up the road or across the country.

Standards of verification

• What third party is verifying the quality of the offsets and holding the supplier to a high standard?
• How often will the project be measured and how will you the consumer be kept informed?

Groups like Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) developed standards for voluntary carbon offset projects. The approval of verifiers assessing a project against these standards can go a long way to assuring most buyers concerns are addressed.  The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCB) is another group offering third-party certification of offset project designs.

In addition to standard sequestration measurements, CCB certification requires that offset projects conserve biodiversity and support community development while storing carbon. 

Follow Your PALS and Reduce Your Personal Emissions

By paying close attention to these offset “PALS,” consumers should be able to ask the questions that need to be answered to ensure the carbon offset programs that they contribute to have real and verifiable results when it comes to mitigating climate change.

At the same time, don’t forget that the most effective personal action to help mitigate climate change is to make choices that will reduce  your personal emissions.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Byron Jorjorian (flowers); Photo © Byron Jorjorian (old cypress).