10th founding club of the CO2 Offset Trust

It is a not-for-profit scheme devised by Rotarians, to:

a)       Encourage Rotarians and the public to donate to offset the CO₂ created by their activities

b)       Provide a Web Site to calculate the donations needed to offset various CO₂ -emitting activities.

c)       Encourage Rotary Clubs to devise local CO₂ reduction schemes and promote these on the Web site

d)      Make grants from the Trust to accredited CO₂ reduction schemes supported and monitored by Rotary Clubs.

e)       Encourage Rotary Clubs to educate their communities about ways to reduce CO₂ locally, providing grants for approved education schemes.

f)        Donate to Rotary Foundation Health Hunger & Humanity (3H) programmes designed to mitigate the effects of Climate Change.

As a founding member club, we will donate US$1000 to the trust to help it become established.  This amount will be raised by members who wish to offset their air travel. They will make their donations through our club until the aggregate amount of US$1000 is reached. 

Those wishing to participate can either: 1) calculate their emissions using the Excel spreadsheet in the downloads area of the website, 2) read the amount off a table of popular flight destinations posted as a PDF file in the downloads area, 3) give the flight itinerary to Craig & let him calculate it, or 4) donate a chosen amount. 

Our donation will be used to develop the Trust's activities, such as leaflets, posters and display panels.  A Founding Member Club's name appears on Trust materials when all Clubs are listed.   

The Trust is a Registered UK Charity and pro-bono help has been provided by the Washington DC law firm Fried Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson to apply for U.S. Section 501(c)3 tax status.  It is planned to apply for charitable status in Canada.

Climate stewardship is a natural responsibility for Rotarians. It meets our Four-Way Test for responsible service, and has direct implications for our ongoing humanitarian commitments to disaster relief, peace and security and, especially, clean water for poor communities worldwide.

Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and one of the worlds' leading academics in the field of Peace and Conflict Resolution - as well as the Mentor for the Rotary Peace Scholars at Bradford University - has said:

"Examined from the perspective of conflict and conflict resolution, there is no doubt the effects of climate change, especially on the poorer parts of the world, are likely to be the most important issues for the next two decades.  If we do not prevent the excesses of climate change, we will be bequeathing to our children a world of severe insecurity, if not chaos, and it will be our generation that will be blamed. "

The United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report in November 2007 warned that the world should focus on the development impact of climate change that could bring unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education.  The report, Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, provides a stark account of the threat posed by global warming. It argues that the world is drifting towards a "tipping point" that could lock the world's poorest countries and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral, leaving hundreds of millions facing malnutrition, water scarcity, ecological threats, and a loss of livelihoods .

Our leadership in business and community, our connections with Rotarians worldwide, and our tradition of service above self give Rotarians a unique power to help reduce and adapt to climate change.   Funds from carbon offsets have an important role in helping improve the lives of poor people.  Around 1.6 billion people still rely of fuel wood and open fires for cooking, and two billion have no access to electricity.

As a club we are currently mitigating some of the effects of climate change through our existing programs -delivering water projects & providing disaster relief through purchase of Shelterboxes.  By setting up a carbon offset charity in Canada, we can also raise additional funds for projects to provide clean, sustainable energy to the poor and fund 3H projects for adapting to the effects of climate change.

The reasons for voluntary offset payments on aircraft travel are that aircraft emissions are not covered by the Kyoto protocol and jet fuel is excluded from most carbon taxes.  Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change has estimated that aircraft emissions have between two to four times the global warming potential as ground-level CO₂

If Rotarians make their offset donations for air travel through this charity, it will raise a substantial new stream of revenue.  For example, if one out of five Rotarians in District 5020 made an average offset donation of $100 annually, it would raise $100,000 for new Rotary projects.

*Founding Member clubs of the CO₂ Offset Trust are, to date,

Sheffield - District 1270, UK; Dronfield - District 1220 UK; East Hampton - District 7260 USA; Tempe South - District 5510 USA; Bretby - District 1220 UK; Margaret River - District 9460 Australia; Drone Valley - District 1220 UK; Naracoorte - District 9780, South Australia; Kirstenbosch, District 9350, South Africa.