GreenPower, the single most important action you can take on climate change. CommunityPower has chosen Origin for 100% GreenPower Wind @ 5.5c/kWh extra*
Adam Tiller
Australian electricity retailers provide customers with the option to buy GreenPower products. In return for an extra fee, retailers buy renewable energy certificates from accredited providers on behalf of the customer. This in turn makes renewable electricity competitive and allows it to be dispatched ahead of coal or gas-fired electricity.
The article itself is about ensuring proper regulation of the carbon offset industry.
But the point made by this particular paragraph is that by being a consumer of GreenPower, in addition to the direct environmental benefit of basically eliminating your greenhouse gas emissions you cause by your electricity power consumption (which in Victoria is the worst in the world per person, because it comes from brown coal), you are changing the marketplace, giving a reason for electricity generators to invest more in their renewable electricity generation infrastructure.
So make sure you choose 100% Green Power.
love Ad
Full article:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/time-to-drive-the-carbon-cowboys-out-of-town-20100127-mz21.html
You are here: Home » BusinessDay » Article
Time to drive the carbon cowboys out of town
VIVIENNE GROVES
January 28, 2010Ads by Google
GREEN bags - are they effective in helping to reduce our landfills, or are they simply a ''get out of jail free card''? In an article in The Sunday Age this week, Deakin University professor of environmental marketing Michael Polonsky was quoted as saying: "Whether we actually use green bags or not is actually irrelevant; we feel we're making a difference."
Buying green bags leaves us feeling less guilty than when we use plastic bags. Yet, by failing to reuse these bags enough times, we end up doing more environmental harm than good.
Of greater concern, however, is whether misinformation inherent in the voluntary carbon offsets markets - highlighted by a BusinessDay investigation in Tuesday's Age - will similarly lead to a worsening of our environmental predicament.
Two key issues were raised in the investigation. Firstly, many consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of transparency in markets for green products such as carbon offsets. Secondly, opaque standards and loose monitoring can allow offset providers to falsely lead consumers to believe that they are buying offsets on their behalf.
Clearly, better regulatory standards are needed - ones that mitigate rather than exacerbate global warming. But are offsets an effective tool for reducing carbon emissions in the first place? The short answer is yes. The long answer is that it depends on consumer confidence in offsets.
Global carbon emissions are a classic case of what economists call the Free Rider Problem. As with voting in a safe electorate, my actions alone cannot affect the outcome of an election or the future level of global emissions. My vote and my emissions are but a small drop in the ocean. Rather, consumer demand for voluntary carbon offsets, like green bags, is driven by guilt.
In Australia, offsets can be bought to directly offset carbon emissions, or indirectly, through consumption of renewable electricity. Many air travellers, for instance, choose to offset their emissions by paying airlines to buy offsets on their behalf. These offsets might sequester carbon from the atmosphere through the planting of forests or through carbon capture and storage.
Similarly, many Australian electricity retailers provide customers with the option to buy GreenPower products. In return for an extra fee, retailers buy renewable energy certificates from accredited providers on behalf of the customer. This in turn makes renewable electricity competitive and allows it to be dispatched ahead of coal or gas-fired electricity.
Under standard economic assumptions regarding consumer behaviour, so long as consumers are well informed about the amount of carbon that offsets can sequester, or the amount of renewable electricity that is forced on to the grid, offset markets can make a significant difference to the level of emissions in the atmosphere. Some consumers may increase their consumption of electricity or travel more frequently than they would otherwise. The availability of offsets provides us with a cheaper and easier way to reduce our guilt than reducing our consumption even further, and as such, we can afford to consume more electricity or fly more frequently, without feeling too guilty. In most cases, however, the net effect will be a fall in emissions as our offset purchases outweigh any increased consumption.
Nonetheless, a lack of consumer confidence and reluctance to buy offsets can lessen the benefits associated with offset markets. In the absence of regulation to ensure that all requirements are met, auditing processes to ensure that carbon sequestered from the atmosphere is not re-released at a later date, and enforceable penalties for GreenPower providers found to be double-counting renewable energy certificates (for the use of both GreenPower and renewable energy target requirements), offsetting will make little difference to our national level of emissions.
Similarly, overconfidence on the part of the consumer is equally dangerous. If the Government fails to successfully introduce the national carbon offset standard, designed to replace the existing Greenhouse Friendly standards, a rise in the number of ''carbon cowboys'' selling rogue offsets will make offsetting a less powerful mechanism for reducing emissions.
Legitimate carbon offsets allow consumers to increase consumption without increasing their net emissions. When consumers are misled into believing that their consumption is offset, however, individual carbon footprints may rise as consumer guilt is mitigated and consumption increases, but carbon emissions remain unchanged.
So when the carbon pollution reduction scheme bill is put before the Senate next week, a smooth implementation of the national carbon offset standard that ensures confidence and restores faith in the consumer by ensuring that carbon offsets are highly regulated and monitored, needs to be a high priority. Green bags have failed to do what they intended. Let us ensure that carbon offsets are an effective measure to tackle global warming and not just a ''get out of jail free card''.
Vivienne Groves is a researcher at the Centre for Ideas and the Economy, Melbourne Business School. This article is based on research available at viviennegroves.com.
Source: The Age
- - - - - - - - - -
http://www.greenelectricitywatch.org.au/
Green Electricity Watch - Green Power rating site, approved by ACF and everybody else.
- - - - - - - - - -
http://www.communitypower.org/
Community Power is a local initiative of Darebin, Whitehorse and
Moreland City Councils and the Moreland Energy Foundation. It is a buying group that negotiates as a block of consumers for the best deal from Energy Retailers. Currently, it has an arrangement with Origin Energy.
Sign Up to a new Community Power Energy Plan
See
What is on offer (http://www.communitypower.org/energy_plans.html) for detailed information on the Community
Power Energy Plans.
Join thousands of households already on GreenPower.
Choose a Community Power Energy Plan for your home and
you’ll now be rewarded with rebates of up to $300 over 3 years
on your electricity bill.
Sign Up Online
Now: http://www.originenergy.com.au/communitypower
- - - - - - - - - -
http://www.communitypower.org/eligibility.html
Community Power Energy Plans are available to the following postcodes:
| Darebin suburbs: | Moreland suburbs: | Whitehorse suburbs: |
|
Alphington 3078 Bundoora 3083 Fairfield 3078 Kingsbury 3083 Northcote 3070 Preston 3072 Reservoir 3073 Macleod 3085 Thornbury 3071 |
Brunswick 3056 Brunswick West 3055 Brunswick East 3057 Coburg 3058 Coburg North 3058 Fawkner 3060 Glenroy 3046 Gowanbrae 3043 Hadfield 3046 Pascoe Vale 3044 Pascoe Vale South 3044 Oak Park 3046 |
Blackburn 3130 Blackburn North 3130 Blackburn South 3130 Box Hill 3128 Box Hill South 3128 Box Hill North 3128 Burwood 3125 Burwood East 3125 Forest Hill 3131 Mitcham 3132 Mont Albert 3129 Mont Albert North 3129 Nunawading 3131 Surry Hills 3127 Vermont 3133 Vermont South 3133 |
- - - - - - - - - -
http://www.greenpower.gov.au/
Latest Green Power News
Jackgreen deregistered 26.01.2010
Jackgreen was suspended from operating as an energy retailer on 18 December 2009. As such the existing customers have been automatically transferred to other energy retailers.
.
Rebecca McBurney
For any interested parties, the Environment Defender's Office is
running a workshop:
A Crash Course in Climate Law
For community groups, climate action groups and interested
individuals. Come along to the EDO’s “Crash Course in Climate Law” to
gain a better understanding of the international and national legal
frameworks proposed to combat climate change. Workshops will be run in:
· Carlton, Tuesday 9 February 2010, 5.30-7.30pm. Details on
our website.
· Geelong, Wednesday 17 February 2010, 7.00-9.00pm. Details
on our website
Cost $20/$10. Bookings are essential. See flyers for how to book.
http://www.edo.org.au/edovic/publications/bulletin/edo_e-bulletin
Best wishes,
Rebecca
Rebecca McBurney
0409 503 242