Some people reckon that the United Nations produces lots of hot air but the good news is that some of it will end up helping farmers in Kenya to cut their reliance of fossil fuels.

I don’t know how they did it but U.N. experts have worked out that the first U.N. special session on climate change last week in New York emitted exactly 149 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
Under a drive to make the United Nations “carbon neutral”, the emissions will be offset by investments in a clean energy project near Nairobi producing edible oils. The cash will help run boilers on farm residues such as from coffee, rice or macadamia crops or by burning eucalyptus firewood rather than importing fossil fuels.
“They made the calculations themselves. I don’t know what they’ve taken into account to come up with 149 tonnes,” said John Buckley, managing director of Carbonfootprint.com which is handling the Kenyan offset project.
“I like that Kenyan project, it’s good to put money into a developing nation,” he said. He declined to say how much the United Nations was paying.
The United Nations says that all emissions from air travel and the operation of the U.N. headquarters building were being offset under the project.
According to carbonfootprint.com, 149 tonnes is roughly the equivalent of 120 round trip flights across the Atlantic Ocean. As an individual, that would cost me about $2,200.
Is this the right way to go for the United Nations? Should companies and others follow suit?