When we are asked what a small organization like Compensators can actually do, we always stress that every ton of CO₂ that you decomission with Compensators is a ton that never enters the atmosphere. At the same time, this fewer ton is a vote for a world in which a climate-friendly economy should be central.

Sure, if some coal-fired power plant emits one ton of CO₂ per second for example, that one ton we prevent from entering the atmosphere seems small, but it undoubtedly has an effect, sets an example, and exerts upward pressure on the market price of CO₂ pollution rights. And of course, we prevent thousands of tons to enter the atmosphere.

Emission prices have significantly increased since Compensators launched its new, improved method about a year ago. Back then, for example, Perspective Daily magazine ran the headline: “How to offset your carbon footprint for 275 euros”. At that time, it cost 25 euros to buy a CO₂ certificate and remove it from the market forever with Compensators. Today, the same 11 tons of CO₂ don’t cost 275 euros anymore, but 831.49 euros – so the price at the certificate exchange has roughly tripled.

(You can read about what you pay for when you buy and decommission an allowance with us here).

This shows: emitting CO₂ is getting more expensive – the EU-ETS is doing its work. Together with you, Compensators will speed up this development and force the industry to lower emissions further.

910 individuals as well as 32 NGOs and companies have decommissioned a total of 5,630 CO₂ certificatesvia Compensators in the past 12 months (as of 28/09). For comparison: The latest CO₂ extraction plantin Iceland is supposed to suck 4000 tons of CO₂ out of theair per year and store it in the ground, which is roughly equivalent to the emissions of 900 passenger cars. Cost of the plant: 10-15 million USD. This shows how much cheaper and less complicated it is to mitigate emissions in the first place.  Compensators is operated by volunteers and offers its service for a fraction of these costs. It is always more complicated to clean up afterwards than to keep things clean in the first place.

Last year, we initiated various cooperations to increase our reach and to inform people about emissions trading. For example, with Die Klimawette, an idea that aims to offset one million tons of CO₂ throughdonations by the time the climate summit in Glasgow takes place at the beginning of November. We also work with with the green energy provider LichtBlick, which raffled off Compensators certificates. Universities have offset research projects through the association, and Compensators itself contributed its expertise to academic projects.

An important pillar of our activity is educational work: a specially developed simulation game will soon make emissions trading tangible for children and young people in schools, where complicated explanations and diagrams have had to suffice up to now. The most important thing is to inform as many people as possible that we need even more pressure on politicians to set much more ambitious climate targets. These must complement the current emissions trading system in order to achieve the 1.5 degree target of the Paris declaration.

We have also taken our work with Compensators to the media. The German newspaper taz recommended CO₂ certificatesas Christmas presents, Greenpeace magazine and other nationwide publications explained our Compensators method to their readers, such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

In the coming year, we will not only continue our work, but also aim to significantly increase the number of decommissioned tons. For this we will also forge new alliances across Europe. If you want to support the work of Compensators, become a member and lend a hand! Every helping hand is welcome. It doesn’t matter where you live because we organize ourselves online. Find out more and join the movement!