Fresh Invest

Carbon Credits... Clean Conscience, Clean planet, Outstanding returns.

Why Invest?

1 tonne of CO2 = 1 carbon credit (if you don’t use it)

How do you gain a return from carbon credits?

We have taken our planet to the edge of the destruction abyss with our reliance upon fossil fuels and the resultant destructions of the rain forest and polar ice caps.

Prince Charles says “that which sustains us must itself be sustained.”

All elements of the planet work together in a harmonious way and by destroying one element of the chain we could cause devastating reactions further down the line.

Governments of the developed world have agreed at Kyoto to reduce their respective emissions of Greenhouse Gasses, mainly Carbon Dioxide as this causes global warming.

Cap and Trade is the ethos of this government’s policy for reductions of up to 80% greenhouse gasses by 2050.

Businesses and households are required to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, and to reduce their carbon footprint. Where they cannot reduce any further, they can trade. 

The trade is to reduce another person’s reliance on fossil fuels and to reduce their potential carbon footprint.

So if I have produced  a tonne of CO2, then I can offset my use by giving an opportunity to someone else to reduce by a tonne, their use.

I could buy them a solar panel and a battery to light a room in their house  in place of a kerosene lamp, or pay a farmer not to deforest an area, or plant trees to offset air travel .
The desired end result is that I become Carbon neutral.

There are areas where development will destroy precious eco-resources and in these areas there is a need to compensate for the opportunity forgone.

For Example:

• A farmer in the Amazon for example compensated for not tuning his forested land over to grass fed beef farming.
• The supply of solar panels and batteries to power isolated villages in India rather than the reliance on kerosene burning.
• A driver who uses a low emission car or a pool car is compensated by a reduction in Road Tax and fuel tax.
• If you drive through central London in your Eco car you will not pay a congestion charge.
• A household who increases the energy efficiency of their home is compensated with a reduction in Council Tax and energy costs.

........................starting to get the message?

We have exploited the resources of the world for too long and we now face third world exploitation of those same resources and we need to encourage a more ecological use of these precious resources.

How do you invest:

You can buy into projects that produce carbon credits and then you can trade them. In 2008 traded carbon credits was a $120 billion market place.

The quality of the credit can affect the value.

Are the credits verified or certified?

Some are traded on the voluntary market and the other on the regulated market.
In the best scenario you would invest in VER credits and see them move to the CER credit band.

Carbon credits can be purchased for a variety of differing schemes, these include:

• Providing a service that will stop someone producing GHG.
• Projects that replant forestry in the tropical rain forest.
• Projects that develop low carbon technology like energy efficient light bulbs.

Return

At present (07/09), because of the global recession carbon credits are cheap to purchase.

However as the economy picks up and the Low Carbon Economy becomes a reality so the traded part of “Cap and Trade” needs to be fulfilled and your credit can accelerate in value.

The trick is to find the project that will produce the most tradable credit for the smallest investment over the longest period.