Climate Care

Climate Care
Private
Industry Green
Founded 1997
Founder Mike Mason, Edward Hanrahan and Tom Morton
Headquarters Oxford, United Kingdom
Number of locations
 4 (United Kingdom, Kenya)
Area served
 Worldwide
Products Carbon offsets
Website climatecare.org

ClimateCare is a UK-based carbon offset company founded in 1997.

It has offices in Oxford, England and Nairobi, Kenya. Its focus is on projects that cut carbon and fund social development. On 24 August 2007, Climate Care announced that it had successfully delivered its first million tonnes of greenhouse gas emission reductions.[1]

It has now funded over 11 million tonnes of Emission Reductions worldwide and improved the lives of 6 million people.

Climate Care was sold to J.P.Morgan in 2008 and became part of JPMorgan Chase's Environmental Markets business.[2] It was taken private through a Management Buy Out in 2011 and now operates under a 'profit for purpose' business model.

History

ClimateCare is one of the world's first and largest organisations in originating, development and retail of voluntary carbon emission reductions.

ClimateCare manages emission reduction projects across the developing world using low carbon and energy efficiency technologies to drive sustainable development.

2013

Working with the Co-operative to develop bespoke projects in their supply chain, integrating offsetting into their broader business objectives.

ClimateCare wins new award for Best Project Developer – Public Health

2012

Winner of Carbon Finance Transaction of the Year for Carbon for Water.

ClimateCare wins three awards from Carbon Trading magazine for its work in the voluntary carbon market.

Works with Kenyan Government to develop 10 year National Climate Change Plan.

2011

Gyapa stoves programme in Ghana becomes the largest Gold Standard Cookstove project in the world.

ClimateCare is bought out of J.P. Morgan by the management team.

2010

Lead author on new Gold Standard methodology to bring carbon finance to safe water provision

Independent global leaders, The Elders, Chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu select ClimateCare as their offset partner.

2009

World first issuance of Gold Standard cookstove credits from Ugastove, Uganda.

ClimateCare’s efficient cookstove project wins Innovation of the Year award from Energy Risk.

2008

Climate Care is acquired by J.P. Morgan and forms foundation of Environmental Markets division.

2007

ClimateCare are founding architects of ICROA, driving robustness and assurance to the voluntary carbon market.

Authors first efficient cookstove methodology, adopted by Gold Standard and so far used by 55 projects around the world.

Partnership with TUI Travel to develop a bespoke portfolio of emission reduction projects in key TUI travel destinations. This forms the cornerstone of the World Care Fund, the largest emission reduction programme in the travel industry.

Achieved 1 million tonnes of emissions reductions.

2006

Nairobi office opened to ensure more effective project management.

Prince of Wales offsets the Royal Household through ClimateCare.

ClimateCare partners with Land Rover to launch one of the largest retail offset schemes in the world.

2005

ClimateCare plays key role in developing international standards for voluntary offsetting, including being an original funder of the Gold Standard Foundation & working with Climate Group to set up the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

2004

Partnership with the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy to bring carbon finance for development projects.

2003

World-first application of carbon finance to cookstoves in Bangladesh

2002

Funded our first energy efficiency project through carbon finance in Mauritius

2001

Work with DEFRA to develop rules for the Voluntary Carbon MarketOffers online service to enable individuals and companies to offset through the website

2000

Partnership with The Co-operative to offer offset mortgages – one of the first products in the world to include a carbon offset.

1998

ClimateCare uses offset funds to restore rainforest in Uganda.

1997

Kyoto Protocol adopted by the international community, to tackle climate change.

Framework for carbon offsetting internationally recognised.

ClimateCare founded to encourage organisations and individuals to take voluntary action on climate change.

.

Carbon offsetting

ClimateCare funds projects all over the world, particularly in developing countries, which produce verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and have associated social or environmental benefits for the local communities. They gain this funding by selling the greenhouse gas emission reductions to businesses and individuals. Often, but not always, these emission reductions are purchased by individuals and organisations in order to compensate for their own emissions - a process known as carbon offsetting. ClimateCare encourages offsetting as one part of a strategy for reducing emissions, to take responsibility for emissions that cannot yet be eliminated at source.[3]

Controversy

There is some controversy about whether carbon offsetting encourages more emissions from individuals in developed countries by believing that it relieves them of guilt[4] or whether it encourages them to become further interested in reducing their carbon footprint.[5][6] Carbon offset schemes have received criticism from some for their lack of regulation and perceived effectiveness. Some have criticised the use of carbon offsetting by certain businesses as an example of ‘greenwash’.[7]

In their report on the Voluntary Carbon Market, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee concluded that research was needed on “what exactly encourages people to reduce their emissions” and the role that carbon offsetting could play in this. Regarding the evidence submitted to their enquiry they stated that “we found little substantial evidence to support the view that offsetting encourages ethical carelessness.”[8]

Greenhouse gas emission reduction projects

ClimateCare funds many projects around the world mainly in developing countries with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting sustainable development in these countries. ClimateCare has delivered over 15 million tonnes worth of greenhouse gas emission reductions to date through projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, methane capture and forestry.[9] Projects are found and put through a set of principles to determine whether they are suitable[10] and are then submitted to various independent standards to ensure accuracy, additionality and verification that emissions reductions are achieved. Standards for carbon offsetting include the Gold Standard,[11] developed by charities such as WWF, and the Voluntary Carbon Standard developed by The Climate Group.

Examples of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects

Treadle pumps in North India

A treadle pump in action.

Climate Care funds the International Development Enterprise India (IDEI) in promoting foot powered ‘treadle’ water pumps in India. This project won the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy for Enterprise in 2006.[12] The pump allows farmers with small landholdings to substantially increase the amount and variety of their crop production.[13] A research study by the International Water Management Institute found that for families who bought a pump, their income increased on average by Rs 4,100 per year from a pump costing about Rs 1200. A typical farm income in this region is typically about Rs 7,000 per year.[14]

Each treadle pump reduces greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 0.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. The emissions reductions are being accredited under the Voluntary Gold Standard[15]

The project has come in for criticism from The Times[16] including accusations of negative impacts on children. Climate Care responded[17] by citing an independent report assessing the impacts of the treadle pump on children, which concluded that "the welfare benefits of the pump extend in large part to the children",[18] whilst a UN Human Development Report of 2006 described the treadle pump as a ‘cheap and affordable technology….[which] when combined with market-oriented production, their potential for poverty alleviation is great’.[19] The project won the Ashden Award for Sustainable energy under Health and Welfare in 2006.[20][21]

LifeStraw Carbon for Water Project

ClimateCare partnered with health company Vestergaard Frandsen to develop this project that uses carbon finance to fund provision of safe water to 4.5million people in Western Kenya. The project was the first in the world to link carbon credits with water provision at scale and has won awards including the Carbon Finance Transaction of the Year award 2012.[22]

This project cuts carbon and provides safe water by distributing 877,505 LifeStraw Family filters to households in Kenya’s Western Province. The gravity driven point-of-use water filters require no electricity or consumables.The project relies on carbon finance. Without it, filters would not have been distributed at scale in the region and the on-going operations, including education campaigns, could not be maintained.

The project was bought to life by film producers Evan Ebramson and Carmen Elsa Lopez in the award winning Carbon for Water Film[23]

AquaClara Project

Non-profit organisation Aqua Clara International, partnered with ClimateCare to establish a water purification project in Kenya, manufacturing and distributing household water filters that replace the need to boil water.The resulting emissions reductions are measured, independently verified and sold to businesses that want to reduce their unavoidable carbon footprint by supporting projects that improve people’s lives as well as the environment.

Funds generated through the sale of carbon credits make this project possible and, as a result, 18,750 families will have safe water by May 2017 cutting an expected 50,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Ugastoves Project

In Uganda, more than 90% of people use biomass, such as wood and charcoal, for cooking.

This project creates a market for fuel-efficient stoves in households and institutions throughout Uganda. These stoves use less fuel than traditional cooking methods, cutting carbon emissions and substantially reducing indoor air pollution, making them much less damaging to the health of the cooks and their families.

Clients

ClimateCare works with a significant variety and number of organisations.[24]

In 2007 ClimateCare offset all three of the major UK political parties’ conferences Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats.[25] They also offset for HRH Prince Charles and the leading sustainable development charity Forum for the Future.

ClimateCare also works with large corporations such as Land Rover, Aviva, Powergen, The Co-operative Bank, Interface Flor, First Choice and lastminute.com.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Climate Care delivers 1 million tonnes! :: Climate Care
  2. ↑ http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorgan/investbk/solutions/commodities/environmental
  3. ↑ CC Report 06
  4. ↑ Monbiot, George, Heat; How to stop the planet burning
  5. ↑ The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market, report by The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee
  6. ↑ Sustainable Consumption Round Table, I Will if You Will
  7. ↑ Friends of the Earth: Press Releases: : CARBON OFF-SETTING
  8. ↑ The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market, report by The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, p.14
  9. ↑ http://climatecare.org/who-we-work-with/individuals-smes/
  10. ↑ project principles :: project types :: Climate Care
  11. ↑ WWF - Gold Standard
  12. ↑ Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy for Enterprise
  13. ↑ Treadle Pump Report by the IDEI
  14. ↑ Pedaling out of Poverty: Social Impact of a Manual Irrigation Technology in South Asia by Shah et al., 2000
  15. ↑ project types :: Climate Care
  16. ↑ "To cancel out the CO2 of a return flight to India, it will take one poor villager three years of pumping water by foot. So is carbon offsetting the best way to ease your conscience?" by Dominic Kennedy and Ashling O’Connor for The Times, August 28, 2007
  17. ↑ Benefiting farmers and their families - truth about treadle pumps :: Climate Care
  18. ↑ Microsoft Word - 20070626 TP & Children Report.doc
  19. ↑ HDR 2006 - Human Development Report Office
  20. ↑ Case Study | GIRA, Mexico, | The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy
  21. ↑ Is carbon-offsetting just eco-enslavement? | spiked
  22. ↑ http://climatecare.org/climatecare-supported-project-wins-carbon-finance-transaction-of-the-year/
  23. ↑ http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/carbon-for-water-film/
  24. ↑ http://climatecare.org/who-we-work-with/
  25. ↑ Parties attempt to reduce hot air generated by their conferences - Times Online
  26. ↑ http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf
  27. ↑ http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures/shop/special-edition/offset-positive

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.