Wisconsin Law Blog

Date: 10/20/2008 3:09 AM

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin designated next weekend’s homecoming football game with Illinois as “carbon-neutral.” The university will use an anonymous donation to buy carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange to offset estimated game-day carbon dioxide emissions. When credits are purchased, the money is invested in green projects.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), is the world’s first and North America’s only active voluntary, legally binding integrated trading system to reduce emissions of all six major greenhouse gases (GHGs), with offset projects worldwide.

Members of the Chicago Climate Exchange sign a legally binding agreement to reduce their emissions, and in exchange for this agreement, the companies are issued credits, which they may use or sell. Companies which don’t use all their credits can sell them to other companies which have not been able to reach the necessary state of efficiency, thereby reducing overall emissions by maintaining a “cap” on total emissions.

Money raised through the sale of carbon credits are used for projects like the expansion of wind farms. Some questionable uses remain in practice such as the burning off of methane in parts of the country, which does keep greenhouse gases out of the environment, but is not the most ideal solution to the problem.

The Chicago Climate Exchange has taken a proactive stand on global warming, although some maintain that it supports the argument against government regulation of greenhouse gases as companies voluntarily comply. Participating companies receive the added benefit of being able to promote themselves as “green companies”.

CCX employs independent verification, includes six greenhouse gases, and has been trading greenhouse gas emission allowances since 2003.

It will be interesting to see how carbon credit trading impacts the economy as new specialties such as “carbon emission auditing” arise, taking us into a new future impacted by global warming.