Do I have to give money to massive polluting companies?

Yes and no. Emissions trading is founded on the idea that you can harness market forces to deliver an environmental good. Markets are based on exchanges of goods, so unfortunately, under these rules if we want someone to stop doing something, we pay. It's actually not such a bad idea. Most of us have and use money to meet our needs. I need a stable climate and think we are currently taking too many risks with it so I'm prepared to pay to make a difference. And these huge polluting companies are actually just making stuff that we need, ok and some stuff we perhaps don’t, but on the whole they are not James Bond villains deliberately destroying the planet. They only stop doing things if they’re told to by Governments or if doing so makes them money. Emissions trading is a way of doing both of these things – Government gives them fewer permits than they need and we go a bit further by paying them to reduce even more.

But, and this is an important but, we also believe some companies can  definitely afford to go further than they have been required to to date. That is why we will be offering them the opportunity to use Sandbag to cancel their own credits by giving them to us free of charge. These free tonnes will be shared out amongst all members which is why we say we guarantee to destroy a minimum number of permits on your behalf but the actual number could be higher than that.