Question for January 2011 - Can we keep GHG off-set money in the region?

 The intent of offsets is to allow people or corporations to take responsibility for their own GHG emissions by targeting the most cost effective opportunities for emission reductions. The idea is that the atmosphere doesn't care where the GHG emissions came from and therefore in some situations there is an economic benefit to eliminate someone else's emissions that are less costly to eliminate than our own - i.e. we get the biggest bang for our emissions reduction dollar by targeting the lowest cost reduction opportunities.

While there are many pros and cons to off-sets, municipalities will be using them to meet GHG emission reduction targets set by the province. The Pacific Carbon Trust, a provincial body, was established to hold control over the quality of the offsets, and to ensure the offset money stays within the province. The PCT is actively seeking offset projects to invest in, so if we can find low hanging fruit within the Kootenays, it will not be difficult to attract money for it - both local offset dollars and dollars from other areas of the province. However, if we can't find low hanging fruit in the Kootenays and still want to keep the offset money here, then we'll have to accept a higher cost per ton of reductions. In many ways this is similar to the decisions people face when trying to shop locally. It becomes a balance between the desire to keep money circulating locally and the desire to maximize the personal benefits of the money spent.

What are your thoughts on Carbon Off-sets? Can we keep the money local? Should we be willing to pay more to keep the money in the region?