You can't buy them as an individual, because it's not a liquid market. You'd have to want enough of them to be worth brokering a deal with someone who's going to not emit on your behalf (eg by upgrading the efficiency of a cement plant in China, that kind of thing). The brokerage costs are going to be big. I know this because it's worth the brokers buying services like Point Carbon and, ahem, my employer's sister company, New Carbon Finance.
I shall ask my NCF colleagues on Monday. But my gut feeling is that you are best off buying from a voluntary offset provider which says it sources credits under the EU-ETS.
My other feeling is that this is not a cost-effective use of your laudable charitable urges. Phase I of the EU ETS is in substantial oversupply if you count the 'hot air' credits from the former USSR. Japan - which, to be fair, accepted stringent targets and already leads the world in efficiency - will end up buying some of this hot air, so all you are doing is pushing up the prices Japan will pay Russia. I'm not sure this is terribly useful. At very least you might want to buy Phase II credits, where the market is expected to be in undersupply and there won't be (I think) any hot air. Or you could probably find a more useful way to spend a thousand pounds to reduce emissions, even if it's a bit more contreversial, eg buying rainforest to protect it (new imperialism etc).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-04-05 10:02 am (UTC)I shall ask my NCF colleagues on Monday. But my gut feeling is that you are best off buying from a voluntary offset provider which says it sources credits under the EU-ETS.
My other feeling is that this is not a cost-effective use of your laudable charitable urges. Phase I of the EU ETS is in substantial oversupply if you count the 'hot air' credits from the former USSR. Japan - which, to be fair, accepted stringent targets and already leads the world in efficiency - will end up buying some of this hot air, so all you are doing is pushing up the prices Japan will pay Russia. I'm not sure this is terribly useful. At very least you might want to buy Phase II credits, where the market is expected to be in undersupply and there won't be (I think) any hot air. Or you could probably find a more useful way to spend a thousand pounds to reduce emissions, even if it's a bit more contreversial, eg buying rainforest to protect it (new imperialism etc).