The Carbon Offset Market
Seeking the perfect gift for that environmentally conscious special someone in your life? Why not shop for your loved one on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE)? Carbon offset futures not romantic enough for you? It’s comforting to know that you can also purchase carbon offsets from Qantas airlines before your next flight to Australia or relax in a carbon neutral luxury resort. The possibilities are endless now that a new kind of green has flooded the markets.
The Exchange
Investors help to reduce world wide CO2 emissions because the carbon offsets they purchase fund ongoing conservation projects. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) first opened for trading in 2003. It is “the world’s first and North America’s only active voluntary, legally binding integrated trading system to reduce emissions of all six major greenhouse gases (GHGs), with offset projects worldwide.”
Reforestation
Forests combat global warming because trees capture and store carbon dioxide. A number of conservation organizations in the business of selling carbon offsets have initiated ambitious reforestation programs in environmentally sensitive areas. Carbonfund.org is one such group. It funds reforestation projects in places like the Tensas River Valley, Louisiana and Rivas, Nicaragua. In the Tensas River Valley, Carbonfund.org supports a 1,100-acre project which will “help restore native bottomland hardwood species to Louisiana and protect over 400 species of mammals.”
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy refers to wind, solar, biomass, methane and other non-carbon producing energy sources. Investors may also purchase carbon offsets in the new clean energy facilities popping up all over the country. Carbonfund.org’s renewable energy portfolio includes a new wind farm in Iowa, a solar power plant in Stockton, California and a landfill methane facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Welcome to the future.
Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE), Reforestation, Renewable Energy
July 14th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
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