Hacker News Reader

Comment by gdubs | Hacker News Reader

I’ve started buying carbon offsets when our family flies (through carbonfund) and it’s a lot cheaper than what I’d imagined. I think requiring airlines to offer carbon offsets directly in the ticket checkout flow would be impactful. I’d go a step further and have people opted-in by default so they have to un-check a box if they really don’t want to spend the extra ten bucks.

Also, as others have said: eating less meat is an effective way to lower your carbon footprint.

View on HN

I don't know how effective these carbon offsets are.

Many of them may just be re-planting some forests that would have been planted anyways or may be even playing some more obvious scam.

If you are looking for something that is probably not a scam, there is a UN citizen platform for carbon offsets. [0] FWIW the platform is supported by a number of major corporations including Microsoft. [1]

[0] https://unfccc.int/climate-action/climate-neutral-now/i-am-a... [1] https://unfccc.int/climate-action/climate-neutral-now/i-am-a...

You can buy credits here https://www.goldstandard.org/get-involved/make-an-impact for projects that have been audited and certified.

Carbonfund was recommended by my airline, and they provide full transparency into which programs your money is going towards, so you can research and decide for yourself.

Air New Zealand offers this as part of their checkout flow: https://www.airnewzealand.com.au/sustainability-customer-car...

I've never used it myself, because I don't feel like it should be up to the passenger/user to volunteer to pay for their carbon. I also donate to charities outside of carbon credits, and those donations are tax deductible, unlike carbon credits. I'd be more inclined to buy carbon credits for my travel if they were tax deductible like charitable donations are.

Cool Earth is a charity that can estimate how much carbon each donation saves.

> it’s a lot cheaper than what I’d imagined

That's mostly because so few people buy them. You are getting low hanging fruit prices; if we were offsetting a significant amount of world emissions, offset prices would be much higher.

I still find the idea of carbon offsets hard to justify morally : you could probably avoid flying in the first place. You could even buy the carbon offsets without flying.

Offsets aren’t mutually exclusive to taking other steps to conserve and reduce our carbon footprint.

I've always wondered how that works. Is there a standard that is enforced or is like a charity that you have to trust?

Currently it’s more the latter. If we had a full-fledged cap-and-trade law, there’d be more accountability in place. Right now you see where the money is going and decide whether you a) trust the organization b) feel confident that the project is going to be an effective offset.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com