RECs and Carbon Offsets: What’s The Difference?

People are sometimes confused by the fact that they can buy two different things to help fight global climate change: RECs and carbon offsets.

They’re similar, though not exactly the same. Twins born to different parents, so to speak. Both are tradable commodities, which put a price tag on the environmental benefit of a technology or process. Both represent, and help subsidize, renewable and sustainable technologies. The difference are due to the fact that they were created by two different groups of people, in two different parts of the world, with slightly different agendas.

RECs, as we explained in What the HEC is a REC (click here to read it), are a commodity that represents the greenhouse gases that are not produced when one megawatt of electricity is generated by a clean, green electric generator.

RECs are sold as a way to subsidize renewable green energy in America, and were created in America. They are measured in megawatt hours, though we can estimate a carbon equivalence for them as well.

Carbon offsets are also a commodity: they represent any technology that decreases the overall amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. There are carbon offsets for technologies that prevent greenhouse gases from being released in the first place…a REC can be considered one type of carbon offset…as well as for technologies that actual remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as reforestation projects, methane capture projects and halocarbon destruction projects.

Carbon offsets are sold as a way to subsidize greenhouse gas reduction, in any form, anywhere in the world, and were a result of the 1997 Kyoto conference which produced the Kyoto Protocol…a protocol that the United States did not endorse. They are measured in pounds of carbon dioxide, or carbon equivalence.

If this is starting to sound like a situation where the world went one way and the United States decided to go it alone in another…well, that’s pretty much what happened. The United States did not want to be bound by the Kyoto Protocol, which set considerably stricter standards for greenhouse gas emissions than we were willling to accept. The rest of the world wasn’t all that impressed by RECs, which only account for one part of the overall fight against global climate change. Unfortunately, the result has been that people with a common goal have spent a lot of time squabbling with each other and pointing out each other’s faults instead of working together.

One of the consequences of this squabble is that there are strictly-enforced restrictions on what we can and can’t say about RECs. For example, the law prohibits us from calling a REC an offset, or from saying that your REC purchase “offsets” your carbon footprint for anything beyond your electric use. You can buy RECs to “green up” your electric use up to 100%, and to green up the electric use of your family, your friends, your business and everyone within a 50-mile radius of your home, but that’s as far as it goes. Technically (and legally!) speaking, you can’t consider a REC purchase to offset the greenhouse gases you produce when you drive your car, fly in a plane or heat your home (unless you use electric heat). In some ways this is splitting hairs, but we understand the importance of honesty when it comes to buying something that represents a priciple, rather than an actual “thing,” and we respect and obey the laws.

Of course, if you decide to buy enough RECs to green up the electric use for everyone within a 50-mile radius of your home, you’ve certainly done more than most people to help fight greenhouse gases!

In the end, the most important thing is not what you choose to buy, but the integrity of your seller. That is why the Eco-Vision Sustainable Learning Center is selling RECs instead of carbon offsets. RECs have a well-established verification process through Green-e® Energy, an agency with a long-standing reputation and commitment to the cause. RECs also have an impact right here in America, which continues to be the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases. And most important, by supporting green energy, RECs help to cut off greenhouse gases at their source. The best way to reduce them is not to produce them.

We continue to look for a carbon offset that we feel meets the same standards for integrity and verification that Green-e® Energy sets for our RECs. When we have found one that passes the test, we will add it to our site.

If you’re looking to completely minimize your “carbon footprint” and meet everyone’s standards, start with enough RECs to cover all of your electric use, then consider carbon offsets to supplement your REC purchase and offset the other activities which contribute to your footprint. We have included links to some great carbon offset sites on our Favorite Links page, which you can reach by clicking here.

By the way…did you ever wonder why we talk about a “carbon equivalence” as the standard for greenhouse gases? After all, the greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and two groups of gases know as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs), so there are a lot more elements than carbon in the mix. Carbon dioxide is used as the standard because it is by far the most common. It is not, however, the most dangerous: methan has about 25 times the warming potential, and nitrous oxide almost 300 times the warming potential, as a similar concentration of CO2.