​

Our actions often cause emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which in turn contribute to global warming and climate change. To counter this, we all need to take climate responsibility and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. But reducing the emissions is often a process that takes time and sometimes requires a change at the community level.

​

The annual mean rate of growth of CO2 in a given year is the difference in concentration between the end of December and the start of January of that year. If used as an average for the globe, it would represent the sum of all CO2 added to, and removed from, the atmosphere during the year by human activities and by natural processes. There is a small amount of month-to-month variability in the CO2 concentration that may be caused by anomalies of the winds or weather systems arriving at Mauna Loa. This variability would not be representative of the underlying trend for the northern hemisphere which Mauna Loa is intended to represent. Therefore, we finalize our estimate for the annual mean growth rate of the previous year in March, by using the average of the most recent November-February months, corrected for the average seasonal cycle, as the trend value for January 1. Our estimate for the annual mean growth rate (based on the Mauna Loa data) is obtained by subtracting the same four-month average centered on the previous January 1. Preliminary values for the previous year are calculated in January and in February.

The estimated uncertainty in the Mauna Loa annual mean growth rate is 0.11 ppm/yr. This estimate is based on the standard deviation of the differences between monthly mean values measured independently by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and by NOAA/ESRL. The annual growth rate measured at Mauna is not the same as the global growth rate, but it is quite similar. One standard deviation of the annual differences MLO minus global is 0.26 ppm/year.

 

To take responsibility for the emissions that you, after all, cause you can climate compensate. Buying climate compensation means that you pay for the greenhouse gas emissions to decrease elsewhere with the same amount that you compensate for. One can see that you pay for someone to take care of your waste instead of throwing it in the wild.

 

We work with climate compensation projects with the highest standards. 

 

The money is invested in a climate-friendly project that had not been created without funding from climate compensation. Often, it is a project within renewable energy, for example, that a wind power plant or solar panels are being built where coal power was previously used. There are also projects that make energy use more efficient, such as replacing cooking over old wood ovens for newer energy-efficient stoves. Or plantation of trees.  Many of the projects not only contribute to a better climate locally and globally but also contribute socially to the area where it is invested. For example, it may in some cases contribute to job opportunities and improved schools and infrastructure in the area in question.

 

We primarily encourage everyone to reduce their emissions, but in order to fully take responsibility for their climate impact, even climate compensate! Want to do more, read the 17 goals set by UN below.