Verified Emission Reduction

Since I traveled twice to Phnom Penh and back and I compensated for only one flight previously, I need to offset my second flight's emissions too.

Matthieu Bommier, in his Master's Thesis, quoted the following four websites as places where individuals can offset their Greenhouse Gas emissions:

• ClimateCare
• ActionCarbone
• MyClimate
• CO2Solidaire

It seems a little bit weird to compare the four competitors but I am indeed going to buy something - the capturing of 4 tons of CO2 - so why not choose who I would like to pay for doing so, depending on how much they charge for it and how serious they look?

• ClimateCare is a UK-based company. It has a very simple and pedagogical website. Their projects seem serious. They evaluate my Paris-to-Phnom Penh return trip at 2,900 kg of CO2 and ask for 33 € to offset it (11 € per ton).
  
• ActionCarbone is an association supported by the French Agency for the Environment. Its website is full of information to make people aware of global warming and of how to reduce their emissions but they don't lead any projects themselves, they fund others' projects. A direct fight from Paris to Hanoï (Phnom Penh is not known) is evaluated at 4,052 kg of CO2 and they ask for 60 € to compensate for it (15 € per ton).
  
• MyClimate is a spinoff from the ETH (Institute of Technology), Zürich. They evaluate my trip at 3,736 kg of CO2 and offer to compensate for it for 90 € (24 € per ton). They will send me a "MyClimate Ticket STAR" certifying that my flight was compensated for.
• CO2Solidaire, which I used last time (see my previous post) iss managed by an association, the GERES, based in France. They evaluate my trip at 4,380 kg of CO2 and ask for 106 € to compensate for it (24 € per ton).

The evaluation of the CO2 production is quite consistent between the last 3 websites, while Climate Care has an almost 30 % lower evaluation. This is not really astonishing. But the range of prices for offsetting a ton of CO2, from 11 to 24 € depending on the site, suprises me.

I will be deliberately naive and hope that the prices reflect the efficiency of the different organizations, and choose the cheapest. I will ask them to offset a larger amount of CO2 than the one they computed, though, to be more consistent with the average evaluation and the fact that my flights to Phnom Penh included a stopover in Bangkok or Taipei (the latter case being a very long diversion from the shortest path).