New Carbon Offset Initiative
New Econometric Society Carbon Offset Purchase Option
The Econometric Society now gives members the option to purchase a carbon offset for their travel to Society meetings as part of the registration process. The Society offers two choices for the offset: Climate Vault, a U.S.-based non-profit created by Professor Michael Greenstone (University of Chicago), and Homaio, an EU-based company that enters into long-term investments in carbon.
An Econometric Society committee appointed by then-President Eliana La Ferrara and consisting of Johannes Stroebel (NYU), Paul Joskow (MIT), and Christian Gollier (chair) (TSE), strongly recommended these two intermediaries for the offset purchases.
Climate Vault acquires the majority of their allowances in U.S. markets but are beginning to expand overseas. Climate Vault holds these allowances so that it can remove them from the system. Climate Vault currently works with several nonprofit corporations and has a similar program with MIT. Technically, a payment to Climate Vault is a donation so that they can purchase the carbon emissions permit, but because the actual purchase is made by the Society, a nonprofit corporation, it is not tax deductible for the member or the Society.
Homaio primarily purchases allowances in the European Union Registry on behalf of the provider of funds. In this sense, a payment to Homaio is an investment rather than a donation. As with payments to Climate Vault, the payments to Homaio will be by the Society and so the investment will be held by the Society. The Society expects to reinvest any gains into Homaio. Homaio recommends holding allowances for 10 years and then “burning” them or deleting them from the system. This timing helps reduce the number of permits issued by the European Union. We anticipate following their recommendations.
When registering, members can choose 1) whether to purchase an offset and, if so, 2) which company to purchase with. The registration system provides information on the amount of carbon emissions the member would incur based on length and mode of travel (short, medium, and long flights in business or coach, or train, or car) and the cost of offsetting these emissions. If a member chooses to purchase offsets, the cost is added to the registration total and designated to the chosen company. This cost is part of the registration fee, not a donation to the Society. The member would choose the receipt type required by their institution.
The Society tracks the amount collected per meeting, purchases the offsets as designated in the name of the Society, and reports the purchases regularly on the Society’s website.
