Troubled NSW carbon credit producer Easy Being Green told to switch from collapsed $6.50 NGAC market to APX-traded VERs at $8.75

Australian Climate Exchange (ACX) Managing Director, Tim Hanlin has called upon troubled NSW carbon credit producer Easy Being Green to switch their focus from the oversupplied NGAC market to produce Greenhouse Friendly VERs, the rising star of the Australian Emissions trading scene.

Around $300 can render a large family household “carbon neutral” for a year

Rather than changing your lifestyle, there was another way to clear your conscience about the size of your carbon footprint: via your wallet and carbon offsets, reported The Australian (15/9/2007, p.1). Selling savings back to consumers: For around $300 companies such as Easy Being Green could render a large family household “carbon neutral” for a year. This equated to reducing the amount of CO2 pollution a home produced by nearly 15 tonnes. Other companies in this space included the Carbon Reduction Institute and Neco. These companies undertook energy efficient projects and installed energy-saving technologies — such as compact fluorescent light globes and water-saving showerheads — into homes and businesses across the country. Easy Being Green offers energy-efficient light globes, installed in homes free of charge, via its website. Each of these globes is then calculated as providing 15,000 hours of energy-saving light that will cut CO2 pollution by 900kg in its lifetime. The company is then authorised to sell that 900kg saving back to customers for $20 through any one of its carbon-neutral packages (it offers a $297.15 package for a 4+ person family home). Devilishly clever and everyone wins, including the planet — or does it?

Consumers buy clean consciences: As George Monbiot, author of Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning has said: “Any scheme that persuades us we can carry on polluting delays the point at which we grasp the nettle of climate change and accept that our lives have to change… By selling us a clean conscience, the offset companies are undermining the necessary political battle to tackle climate change at home. They are telling us we don’t need to be citizens; we need only to be better consumers.”

Reference: Easy Being Green: http://www.easybeinggreen.com.au
Carbon Reduction Institute:
http://www.noco2.com.au
Neco: http://www.neco.com.au

Buyer beware: “Voluntary” credit NGAC buyers warned NSW government does not verify the green-accounting, of the seller

Over the past two years, the level of interest in using NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates (NGACs) to voluntarily offset greenhouse gas emissions had increased significantly, according to the GGAS Newsletter, of the NSW government, Issue 5, (10/9/2007). “Much of this interest comes from increasing desire to achieve a ‘carbon neutral’ status by individuals and organisations,” the newsletter said. “Evidence suggests NGACs are considered to have broad appeal as a standard instrument traded on the open market representing one tCO2-e of abatement.

For the 2006 calendar year;

• 2,660 NGACs were voluntarily surrendered and this year to date;

• over 6,100 NGACs have been voluntarily surrendered.

To facilitate this ‘voluntary’ market participation, the GGAS Registry was upgraded in 2006 to allow organisations other than benchmark participants (the liable parties) to surrender NGACs. It should be noted that while the Scheme Administrator accepts voluntary surrenders through the Registry, it does not provide any verification as to whether the volume of NGACs surrendered equates to the participant achieving carbon neutrality.”

Surrendered certificates cannot be reused: “To voluntarily surrender (also known as retire) NGACs, an account on the Registry must be opened and NGACs transferred into that account. Certificates can then be surrendered on the Registry.

Not an offset: Purchasing and holding NGACs in a Registry account does not equate to achieving an offset. NGACs must be surrendered to be effective in offsetting a participant’s carbon footprint. There are important deadlines that voluntary participants need to consider when deciding to surrender NGACs. Individuals can voluntarily surrender NGACs at any time between 1 July and 20 June of each financial year.

Certificates that have been surrendered before 20 June of each financial year will be accepted by the Scheme Administrator and on 30 June of each year all surrendered certificates will be cancelled by the Registry and the certificates cannot be un-surrendered or reused. As a tradeable commodity with a market value, voluntary participants should carefully consider the volume of NGACs they wish to surrender to offset their carbon footprint, as once surrendered, the commodity cannot be retrieved.”

Reference: For further information regarding opening and managing an account on the Registry see the Registry FAQs on our website at http://www.greenhousegas.nsw.gov.au/registry/tips.asp
For further information regarding the process for voluntary surrender on the Registry, see the fact sheet on our website at http://www.greenhousegas.nsw.gov.au/documents/syn98.asp
GGAS Newsletter, Issue 5, September 2007,
http://www.greenhousegas.nsw.gov.au/documents/Newsletter_Issue5_September07.pdf