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Events
Apr. 7 | MAASA Joint Conference—April, 2011
Joint conference on material culture, April 7-11, 2011, UW-Madison
Carbon Offsets
Dear Colleagues:
On the “Event Fees” portion of the registration form for the 2009 Annual Meeting, you will find a category marked “carbon offset.” Like all other event fees, this category is optional. There is no obligation to participate. Rather, we have added the category as a (potentially) useful service that the ASA can provide to our membership: the option to offset carbon emissions that may result from your travel to our annual meeting.
What, exactly, is a carbon offset? Here’s how Wikipedia describes it:
A carbon offset is a financial instrument representing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Although there are six primary categories of greenhouse gases, carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e). One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.
There are two primary markets for carbon offsets. In the larger compliance market, companies, governments or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. In 2006, about $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market, representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions.
In the much smaller voluntary market, individuals, companies, or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electricity use, and other sources. For example, an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by personal air travel. In 2006, about $91 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, representing about 24 million metric tons of CO2e reductions.
Offsets are typically generated from emissions-reducing projects. The most common project type is renewable energy, such as wind farms, biomass energy, or hydroelectric dams. Other common project types include energy efficiency projects, the destruction of industrial pollutants or agricultural byproducts, destruction of landfill methane, and forestry projects. Purchase and withdrawal of emissions trading credits also occurs, which creates a connection between the voluntary and regulated carbon markets.
The entry continues (of course!), but this is an excellent working definition. Indeed, I recommend the entire entry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset], which offers a concise and comprehensive digest of the possibilities and problems of carbon offsetting. Since most of us will be traveling by air to Albuquerque, each of us will be responsible for about 1 ton of carbon—thus the option, on our registration form, to offset that one ton of carbon through the purchase of one offset.
Let me emphasize that there is nothing particularly clean or straightforward about offsets. The market with which we are engaged is a voluntary one. It doesn’t exactly discourage consumption! You might wonder if you are simply buying an indulgence rather than making a difference. There are few or no standard assessment tools that would let us judge and compare the quality of the offsets we are buying. Some of the possible returns are spread over very long time frames (reforestation, for example… and of course there’s always the possibility that your [re]forest might burn down, releasing lots of… um… carbon.). Other projects sell actions that companies might have planned to do all along. (Those concerned with offsets tell us to look for “additionality”—projects that would NOT otherwise have come into being without help from the offset market). So the idea of carbon offsetting comes with a fair amount of uncertainty.
On the other hand, the practice of carbon offsetting will no doubt continue to develop, and we can hope that it will do so in ways that have positive consequences for the global environment. In this sense, the purchase of carbon offsets might also be about us joining the stream of others trying to send a message: we are interested, we want to participate, and we want the practice to develop in more effective ways. The American Studies Association has always sought to link its activities to social goods. Our annual meetings are in union hotels, and we are a staunch supporter of INMEX, a progressive, labor-sensitive organization that handles our conference planning. We try to hold meetings in places where our dollars might make a difference. Our scholarship speaks actively, in a multitude of ways, to issues of social import. It makes good sense for the ASA to explore the possibilities of something like carbon offsetting. Indeed, one of the social movements we have been somewhat slow to engage over the last decades is that of environmentalism. It is my hope that we can continue to open the door to a discussion of environmental issues within the ASA. Count this option as a very small step!
Those interested in purchasing carbon offsets for travel to the annual meeting will no doubt be curious as to what they are actually buying. The plan (for this year, at least) is to blend our collective purchase of offsets between two organizations. Climate Trust (www.climatetrust.org) supports wind, energy production efficiency, reforestation, and a range of other technologies. Native Energy (www.nativeenergy.com) has a track record focused on windpower development on Northern Plains Indian reservations, and it is majority-owned by the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy. Its current projects are focused on wind power and methane remediation on dairy farms. Both of these organizations were highly ranked (among the top eight offset providers) in the most recent evaluation of offset offerings, particularly on the question of “additionality.” For that report, see http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/consumersguidetocarbonoffsetts.pdf. (but please note that—natch!—the report has come in for criticism, mostly around the open question of how providers might be critically assessed and compared). Following the annual meeting, I will prepare a brief report on this effort, posted to the ASA website, in which I’ll let you know about the extent of participation, what our blended purchase ended up looking like, and any lessons learned from this year’s effort.
Thanks for considering the purchase of carbon offsets for your travel. Like life in general, the whole thing is a bit messy… but it’s still worth our time, attention, and resources. And thanks, most of all, for your continued support of the American Studies Association.
Best wishes,
Phil Deloria, President
Kevin Gaines, President-elect
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