£8 offsets the warming effect of 1 ton of CO2 for 1 year.
They say the average American is responsible for emitting 16 tons of CO2 per year. I'm not American, but let's run with that. (They're giving me the prices in my country's currency, they could at least tell me the average emissions of my fellow citizens as well.)
If I want to offset all my CO2 emissions going forwards, that's
- £128 in the first year (to offset 16 tons)
- £256 in the second year (to offset 32 tons)
- £384 in the third year (to offset 48 tons)
- £512 in the fourth year (to offset 64 tons)
because the CO2 isn't removed, just offset, and only offset for one year.
And remember they're only offsetting the warming effect, not doing anything about ocean acidification.
OK, but they have a subscription service that costs £23.90 per month to offset 30 tons for a year per month… if I understand that correctly that's £286.80 per year to offset 360 tons, which is 22½ years of my emissions. OK, if I sign up now then that's me done until 2046 and then I can up my payment but hopefully I'll be emitting less by then.
£286.80 per year is less than a fifth of my council tax.
Also it's still going to be hanging around in the air after I die, so let's hope someone's paying for CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere by then.
I don't have the spoons to compare it to the cost of not emitting CO2 in the first place, or of removing CO2 from the air or sea and reliably sequestrating it, anyone want to carry on with the maths?
