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Carbon offsetting

We offset 20% of your car’s CO₂ emissions

By choosing The Co-operative car insurance you’re doing your bit to help fight climate change…if you take out any car insurance policy with The Co-operative Insurance, we’ll offset 20% of your car’s CO₂ emissions as standard.

What is carbon offsetting?

Each time we drive the car, C0₂ (carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is released when fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are burnt) is added into the atmosphere. Offsetting means funding projects designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions with the aim of cancelling out (or offsetting) the emissions arising from driving.

The Co-operative Insurance offset 20% of the damage that your car's CO₂ emissions cause to the environment - at no extra cost to your premium.

How do we offset your car's CO₂?

We calculate how much CO₂ the average car doing average mileage emits, then make a donation to projects that work to 'neutralise' 20% of those CO₂ emissions. We invest in projects like rainforest reforestation, renewable energy sources and energy efficiency:

• Renewable energy - for example, funding the development of alternatives to fossil fuels.
• Energy efficiency - including ways of getting the most out of the energy we use.
• Forest restoration - Planting more trees to develop our forests can play a vital role in the absorption of green house gases in the short to medium term.

Examples of projects that we have funded:

• Building biogas systems to provide renewable cooking fuel in the areas around Ranthambore National Park in India. This is one of the world’s largest tiger reserves, but the illegal gathering of wood for cooking fuel is putting the tiger’s habitat under threat.
• The replanting of rainforest in the Kibale National Park in Uganda. Much of this valuable tropical rainforest was cut down during the 1960s and 1970s and this project aims to re-establish a naturally-regenerating rainforest ecosystem. The rainforest absorbs carbon dioxide during growth, and effectively ‘locks it up’ in biomass.

The Co-operative Insurance is a brand name used by CIS General Insurance Limited.