Cool Carbon:

What is Cool Carbon?

Photo: Roger Burks/Mercy Corps

Offsetting your carbon emissions doesn't have to be an expensive, complicated or time-consuming process. Through Mercy Corps' Cool Carbon initiative, you can help address climate change issues — and commit to a greener lifestyle — by donating to climate-friendly projects that help individuals and families in the developing world.

These projects are not intended to offset your carbon ton-for-ton. To do this we would waste relatively large amounts of money on detailed technical monitoring, which would exclude community projects from the carbon market. What this initiative offers is a way of donating your offset money to climate friendly projects that reduce emissions while providing a host of real benefits to people who need support.

Cool Carbon's innovative new projects address both the issues of climate change and poverty reduction. We are piloting seven different projects — representing a range of countries and regions — that address environmental and economic issues at the grassroots level.

Cool Carbon allows businesses and individuals to make contributions that directly address climate change issues, with the assurance that all projects will be properly supported and evaluated by Mercy Corps. You will be able to track the progress of these projects with the concise and transparent information about how your investments have been spent, who the projects are benefiting and how carbon is being offset or sequestered. These updates will be available on the individual project pages.

The projects that are currently in the portfolio for this initiative include:

• Biodiesel fuel from recycled cooking oil (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Solar water heaters (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Biogas latrines (Colombia)
• Micro-hydro power (Colombia)
• Urban forestry (Colombia)
• Fuel efficient stoves (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• Biodiesel fuel from yak tallow (Mongolia)

Mercy Corps launched its climate change initiative in October 2006 as recognition that the effects of climate change can spur future global humanitarian crises and threaten to undermine the security and progress of the communities we serve.

In response, we're working to provide adaptation strategies for communities coping with the effects of climate change, while also providing viable energy options for communities that support development while reducing carbon emissions. Mercy Corps recognizes that these are small steps but each of these projects has the capacity to be scaled up for much larger impact. When families adopt these strategies and begin to create positive environmental change, we hope that governments will assist communities replicating those successes, leading to more widespread adoption of climate-friendly practices.