If you buy a carbon credit then you are buying someone else's right to emit carbon. As an ordinary consumer you can emit as much carbon as you like. The bad news is that individuals are not allowed to buy carbon credits. So greenmile.co.uk buys carbon credits and offers to allocate them to people - we bridge the gap between the carbon trading system and the general public
Carbon credits are trade on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (the "EU ETS" for short). Under the scheme the EU determine how much carbon certain industries (mainly power generation) can emit. The operators can sell their permits to emit carbon on the EU ETS. In the UK Government have produced a good introductory guide to the scheme which can be downloaded from www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/trading/eu/intro/index.htm and publish details of the scheme on their website (see www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/trading/eu/index.htm).
