An excellent idea for all those CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) credits that were waiting to have a market
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), announced an online carbon credit platform that would allow individuals, families, businesses to shop for options to offset their carbon footprints. They can buy carbon credits tied to specific CDM (Clean development mechanism) projects and cancel out or offset their personal emissions.
The platform also offers a carbon calculator where users can measure their emissions for a year.
Then, users can choose a CDM, like a hydroelectric plant in Karala, India, from a menu. Each project comes with a price tag of how many dollars it requires to offset the equivalent of one ton of your carbon. In the case of the plant in Karala, the price right now is $2.50 a ton. For the average American, whose carbon footprint is around 20 tons a year, a whole year of emissions could be canceled out of the global system for a modest $50.
The website is evidently still in progress.