Several car insurance companies are now offering `offset’ car insurance deals. First seen early in 2007, these carbon neutral policies are now becoming more popular as motorists and seek to appease their guilt.
Car insurance companies, you can be sure, are not quite as altruistic, but nevertheless have seen a way to underline their green credentials at the same time as exploiting a new market niche.
CO2 is one of the chief elements of so-called greenhouse gases, the build-up of which is helping to raise temperatures around the world, and could lead to catastrophic climate changes including melting of ice caps, rising sea levels, fierce storms and heatwaves.
Motor vehicles account for around 25% of CO2 emissions in the Western world. The best a motorist can do to reduce their share of emissions is to drive less. If that’s not possible, say the motor insurers, who really don’t want motorists to change to pedal power, they will offer to pay to offset part of their customer’s car emissions
For a limited period, ibuyeco, part of the BGL Group of companies, will pay to offset 100% of their customer’s car emissions.
More Than will offset the first 3,000 miles of a motorist’s carbon emissions, using the CarbonNeutral Company as a partner.
A point to bear in mind is that it generally costs around £10 to offset 3000 miles, so when comparing quotes remember that you can always go direct to a carbon offsetting firm (i.e. Climate Care) and buy credits yourself. It may work out cheaper in some cases to use a cheaper insure like Swiftcover and do your own carbon offsetting.
See our daily-updated table of car insurers here.
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