I would suggest taking a different approach. Paying for carbon offsets does not further Wikimedia’s goals. It is, at best, a shortcut to brownie points as measured by other organisations. Requiring volunteers to pay extra for carbon offsets is doubly worse as they can’t then spend that money on their other Wikimedia activities.
Instead, perhaps we could invest in projects that will improve our coverage of climate change? Imagine the impact that improving our freely licensed information about climate change could make. Good/featured articles about the organisations that have been named here already? More referenced information in the articles on this topic? More images to illustrate those articles? If that doesn’t make a difference, then we have to answer a rather more fundamental question about our impact on the world.
Thanks, Mike
On 11 Oct 2019, at 22:27, Bence Damokos bdamokos@gmail.com wrote:
In case it is interesting, for the tenders at my workplace that require offsetting, we include this requirement:
" Carbon offsetting will be achieved by means of projects of the following type: CDM (Clean Development Mechanism), JI (Joint Implementation) or VER (Voluntary Emissions Reduction), all certified as 'Gold Standard' by bodies accredited by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)."
In practice, https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/ is a place I've used personally where one can easily find projects meeting the above criteria.
For more context, to save a bit of Google-ing:
CDM projects are those assessed and verified by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in developing countries which can sell certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each one equivalent to one ton of CO2. These CERs can be traded and sold and are currently used by industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol(link is external) http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/mechanisms/clean_development_mechanism/items/2718.php .
Gold Standard projects are CDM or voluntary offset projects giving an additional guarantee concerning sustainable development benefits. These are projects awarded the 'Gold Standard'(link is external) http://www.goldstandard.org/ quality label by a Swiss-based non-profit foundation, supported by a group of 50 NGOs.[1]
[1] From https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/funding/faqs-toolkit-and-glossary/frequently-...
Best regards, Bence
On Fri, 11 Oct 2019, 22:55 Fæ, faewik@gmail.com wrote:
Any general questions like catering for virtual attendees can be raised at the talk page for the 2020 LGBT+ conference.[1] The conference is at the proposal stage with funding yet to be agreed with the WMF. The proposers will be happy to receive feedback and respond to questions.
If no previous conference within our wider Wikimedia movement has used carbon offset projects to benefit its green footprint, that's an interesting fact to confirm as this may well be a great opportunity to try this out.
Links
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Conference/Kawayashu/Queering_Wi...
Thanks, Fae
On Fri, 11 Oct 2019 at 20:47, Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com wrote:
This has nothing to do with how green WMF operations might be. It has to do with the greener choices /we/ as volunteers can make for /our/ conferences.
Since a fortnight ago you were haranguing* the WMF for using too much air travel and lacking "any actual measurable commitment to picking up a telephone, holding a video conference, or holding a VR conference
session",
it will be interesting to see what solutions you can come up with for
this
conference you're organising. Did you consider the options other than an in-person conference that you recommended the WMF adopt, out of interest?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-09-30/N...
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