We have been talking about saving of energy in this series of blogs. There is, however, another side of reducing energy usage and the consequent reduction in CO2 emissions or carbon impact. This is making use of carbon credits or offsets.
Signatories of the Kyoto Protocol have agreed to have 'caps' or quotas on the maximum amount of Greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted by developed and developing countries. These counties then set quotas on the emissions by local facilities. Each of these businesses is assigned an allowance of credits, which the gives the business the right to emit one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or other equivalent greenhouse gas per credit. Those companies whose emissions are underneath their allowance can sell their unused allowances as carbon credits, and companies that are about to exceed their quotas can buy these unused allowances as credits.
For further information regarding the trading of carbon credits see in North America: Chicago Climate Exchange http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/ and in Europe the European Climate Exchange http://www.europeanclimateexchange.com/
It is even possible that, being seen as environmentally conscious, with programs to reduce Green House Gasses & energy usage, could make your company more attractive to investors. The Scotia Bank, for example, has established an investment fund that for investors looking to invest in companies that are developing strategies to adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change. This fund, The Scotia Global Climate Change Fund looks at nine climate change themes,
- Sustainable Living, health care, communications, sustainable retail·
- Power Technology; power management, hydrogen, distributed energy
- Efficient Transport; automotive, freight
- Environmental Finance; carbon finance
- Water: filtration and distribution systems
- Renewable Energy: wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydro
- Power Merchants & Generation: natural gas, nuclear
- Clean Technology & Efficiency: smart energy transmission, end-user energy efficiency
- Clean Fuels: ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, agricultural efficiency
Source: Scotia Bank http://www.scotiabank.com/cda/content/0,1608,CID12092_LIDen,00.html
Energy efficiency “Now important”
Energy Management and the resulting efficiencies is everyone’s business, not just the engineers’. As a major factor in the generation of green house gasses, it is in everyone’s best interest to conserve energy as part of caring for the environment. It is also a double benefit that conserving energy adds to the bottom line in reduced costs and potentially added revenue and investment
