Burgeoning carbon offset industry in East Asia

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was at the World Bank’s Washington, DC headquarters last Thursday to speak on elements of the Big Apple’s success in attracting “the free, global movement of labor, capital and ideas.”  Bloomberg noted that New York has joined more than 700 other American cities in pledging to meet Kyoto protocol standards for carbon reduction – in sharp contrast to the current U.S. policy.  The Bank offset the carbon footprint of Mayor Bloomberg’s trip to Washington by purchasing one ton of CO2 through the Scolel Té Project in Chiapas, Mexico.  The Carbon Catalog, an independent directory of offset providers and projects around the world like Scolel Té, lists 17 carbon offset projects in East Asia, including the Inner Mongolian Wind Power Project in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, China, the Salido Kecil Mini Hydropower Plant in West Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Biogas from Sewage Water Project in Chumphon, Thailand.