Carbon offsetting: What is it about & who/what benefits?

We have all heard about the concept of carbon offsetting.  The smaller, voluntary markets such as airlines use it to reduce their carbon footprint as well as numerous other industries such as leisure, manufacturing and even financial institutions.  In 2008 $705 million was purchased in carbon offsets in this smaller market which equates to 123.4 million metric tons of CO₂e reductions.  In the larger compliance market, companies, governments, or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, and of liable entities under the EU Emission Trading Scheme. In 2006, about $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market, representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO₂e reductions.

As we can see, this is big business with many 'carbon offsetting' companies trying to get a slice of the pie.  I even saw this in a hotel we stayed at this weekend.  A company issued them a certificate stating that they were carbon neutral due to all the carbon offsets (I cannot remember how many metric tons of CO₂₎ purchased by the leisure company.  But what is purchased and how does this result in offsetting your carbon emissions?  If one goes to Wikipedia or even Google, the variation of articles on 'carbon offsetting' is a minefield.  But is it a good concept or just a sell out? 

Here is my view:
One of the articles compares it to 'Indulgences' that the Roman Catholic Church sold in penance of ones sins a few centuries ago.  So this being said, an organisation can rack up those carbon emissions and just cap and trade carbon offsets to be forgiven.  I then become very sceptical of this concept...but, if we didn't have this at all?

I view the problem of carbon offsetting as seeing only one angle and not looking at the whole picture.  Big picture thinking is required for this problem of carbon emissions and climate change as it is one big connected system.  Can we not look at the principles of Sustainability (systemic, cyclical, all inputs and outputs, all impacts) to create a more balanced solution?

For this blog I will use the airline industry for a few insights:

• An aircraft is made from a myriad of raw and processed materials.  So looking at the entire supply chain from rare earths for the electronic equipment to the carbon fibre in the wings and the aluminium for the fuselage, the entire supply chain can get pretty complex!  Solution: recycled materials, choosing suppliers with minimum environmental impact and large social impact (skilling up PDI's).

• Then the fuel: Jet-A and Avgas is processed from brent crude oil and has many additives which contribute significantly to climate change, especially so because planes fly higher in the stratosphere this has other non-CO2 impacts.  To go even wider, the ground airport vehicles, and those used by passengers and staff to access airports.  Solution: biofuels (however a contentious issue which affects food security), Swift fuel, more efficient aircraft engines, electrifying the nosewheel, using hybrid or electrical ground vehicles, using turboprop aircraft for short haul flights etc........the list can be endless.

• The airport buildings and the emissions generated by the production of energy used in airport buildings and the construction of airport infrastructure.  Solution: green building design, use of renewable energy, recycling air and water.

These are just ideas where the technology already exists.  I'm sure there are other blue sky ideas which can totally transform any industry but cannot be immediately implemented.  Even with existing technology, it's the business case and investment therein that puts on the brakes to the actual implementation.

So in conclusion, who benefits from the 'carbon offsetting' approach?  Like true capitalism only the few.....
Let's consider a more systemic approach and not one size fits all which takes each organisation, country and entity into account with individual processes/requirements and propose solutions from there.  I definitely think that the 'carbon offsetting' concept will still play a part, BUT not the only part of the bigger solution.