Where does my money go?

Your donation is transferred to our environmental partner, PURE the Clean Planet Trust. PURE is the first UK charity (number 1112249) dedicated to combating climate change through carbon offsetting and is a simple way for individuals and businesses to directly support the Kyoto process. PURE's carbon offsetting method has a double environmental benefit. PURE will use your donation to finance projects in the UK and around the world to reduce carbon emissions. It does this by buying carbon credits - each credit represents one tonne of emissions that has been reduced. By permanently removing these carbon credits from the market, PURE also reduces the number of carbon credits in circulation, thus preventing a polluter from using the credits as a "licence to pollute." This forces a further reduction in carbon emissions.

How can I be sure of the quality of the projects supported?

PURE has committed to meet the standards of the Government's proposed code of best practice for all its carbon offsetting activities. PURE only supports renewable energy and energy efficiency projects because these projects offer the best long-term sustainability benefits. PURE only buys carbon credits through programmes regulated by the United Nations or the EU. The carbon credits that PURE buys and cancels are only issued once the relevant emission reductions have verifiably been achieved, giving you certainty that the emissions reduction your donation pays for actually happens. In addition, all projects supported by PURE must depend on the revenue from carbon credit sales to keep going, ensuring that your donation makes a real difference. For projects in developing countries, this is certified by the UN. For British projects, this is certified by the National Energy Foundation.

What sort of projects does PURE support?

• PURE recently announced its support for the World's first Gold Standard project to receive carbon credits from the UN. The Gold Standard is an international coalition of environmental organisations such as WWF and Greenpeace . The Malavalli project in India not only reduces carbon emissions by 20,000 tonnes per year (equivalent to taking 7,500 UK cars off the road) and provides clean, renewable electricity for around 10,000 people in 47 villages, it has also created around 650 new jobs and injected around $1 million per year into the rural economy.
• Another project supported by PURE is the BK Energia project which uses wood waste from sustainably managed forests in the Amazon as a fuel, replacing electricity from polluting diesel generators. The result of this is that renewable energy is generated for Itacoatiara an area in the Amazon with a population of around 80,000. Emissions are reduced by around 165,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to the domestic energy emissions of a UK town of 60,000 people such as Scarborough. The project's other main benefit is the protection of an area of jungle around three times the size of Greater London.

• Purchase CO2 emissions that match your household emissions
• Use your savings from switching energy suppliers
• Completely compliant with Kyoto protocol standard