What is the Carbon Market?
In today’s environmentally conscious world most people know that one of the biggest contributing factors to global warming is the excess amount of Greenhouse Gases polluting our atmosphere.
As people and governments became more aware and concerned about this problem, new solutions began to arise such as passing legislation that regulates companies and entire countries Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Currently, 183 countries have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol which specifies legally binding emissions obligations, or caps, for industrialized countries. Since the United States has not ratified this treaty but is in the process of passing its own Greenhouse Gas emission legislation, we are currently participating in the U.S. voluntary markets.
Because Environmental Fabrics, Inc. and our subsidiary Environmental Fabrics de Mexico, has completed hundreds of anaerobic digester projects around the world, we must adhere to regulations put in place by the Kyoto Protocol. Under this legislation we use the Clean Development Mechanism to ensure our projects earn Carbon Credits.
These credits are units that represent the amount of emissions, in tons of CO2 Equivalent, an emitter has avoided. For instance, if a client’s legal cap is 10 tons of CO2E and after completion of a Carbon Emission Reduction project with EFI their emissions are reduced to 9 tons, they will be granted 1 carbon credit. These carbon credits can be monetized and traded to other emitters who cannot reduce their emissions to their legal cap. Under the CDM, this credit is called a Certified Emission Reduction (CER). In the United States, which does not certify their credits under the Kyoto Treaty, they call their credits VERs or Voluntary Emission Reductions.
By implementing appropriate current practices and technologies according to specific protocols, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be monitored, documented, independently verified, and registered to an account as certified, tradable carbon credits.
Our Carbon Partners
