Do Carbon Offsets Offset Carbon?

Building a Credible Carbon Offsets

Bradford Gentry opened the workshop by addressing the variability in prices that Yale encountered when it was shopping for renewable energy credits (RECs). What does it mean if one REC is priced at $38 per ton of CO2 equivalent while another one goes for $10/ton of CO2 equivalent, for example? Gentry suggested that the wide variety of green technologies available may account for this disparity,...

A Realistic Policy on International Carbon Offsets

Carbon Offsets with Endogenous Environmental Policy

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expresse...

Exploring Us Consumers Understanding of Carbon Offsets

This study found the relationship between general environment knowledge and carbon offsets knowledge is inversely related and no significant differences in general environment or carbon offset behavior exists between levels of knowledge. The findings lend support that consumers may misunderstand 'carbon offset' claims thus public policy intervention is required.

Explaining the Price of Voluntary Carbon Offsets

This paper identifies factors that explain the large variability in the price of voluntary carbon offsets. We estimate hedonic price functions using a variety of providerand project-level characteristics as explanatory variables. We find that providers located in Europe sell offsets at prices that are approximately 30% higher than providers located in either North America or Australasia. Contra...